BENGALURU: Campaigning for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee V. Somanna in Lingayat-dominated Varuna Assembly constituency here on Tuesday, BJP leader and Union Minister Amit Shah accused the Congress nominee and former chief minister Siddaramaiah of insulting the Lingayats by reportedly calling them "corrupt.”
While V. Somanna is from the politically dominant Lingayat community, Siddaramaiah belongs to the Kuruba community.
Amit Shah also accused the Congress party of insulting Lingayats by removing Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil, both from Lingayat community, as Chief Ministers of Karnataka in the past.
On scrapping of reservation for Muslims by the BJP government, Shah asked “Is it not right to end reservation for Muslims?” and said that reservations would be cut down to Lingayats and given back to Muslims if Congress gets voted to power.
Shah questioned Siddaramaiah “What makes you to shift Assembly seats in every election” and observed that Siddaramaiah does not do development works in the seats he wins and voters rejecting him everytime is the reason for him to contest from a different Assembly seat in every election.
He asked the gathering “Do you want a candidate who is set for retirement from politics?” or choose a “worker?”
Posing certain questions to the gathering, Shah asked them “Can Congress bring prosperity?”, “Can Congress end corruption in Karnataka?” and “Can Congress do development in Karnataka?” and “Then why vote for Siddaramaiah in Varuna seat?”
Shah also accused Siddaramaiah of causing ‘delay’ to the execution of Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway and after BJP came to power in Karnataka under B.S. Yediyurappa as the Chief Minister of Karnataka gave impetus to the project.
He assured to make Varuna a model seat in Karnataka if BJP nominee Somanna was elected in the ensuing Assembly election.
