Kalaburagi: B S Yeddyurappa plays Lingayat card, rakes up ‘insult’ to Patil

Kalaburagi: Lingayat strongman and state BJP chief, B S Yeddyurappa on Wednesday reminded the Veerashaiva-Lingayats of Chincholi about the "betrayal" of the late former Chief Minister, Veerendra Patil, a member of their community by the Congress years ago and appealed to them not to commit the "big offence" of voting for it in the May 19 assembly bypoll.

Mr Yeddyurappa , who was addressing a meeting in Kalagi town, hit back at Congress leader, Mallikarjun Kharge for his comment that former MLA, Dr Umesh Jadhav had betrayed the Congress by quitting it to join the BJP, saying, "I want to ask Mr Kharge where were Congress leaders when late Veerendra Patil was unceremoniously removed from the post of CM at the airport by the late PM Rajiv Gandhi? When I met him, Patil shed tears over the insult. I want to tell the Veerashaiva-Lingayats that Veerendra Patil was insulted by the Congress. Not one person should support it this bypoll. Supporting the Congress will amount to a criminal act," he contended. The BJP leader added,"Consider the irony. Yeddyurappa, who has 104 MLAs, is sitting in the opposition, but Mr Kumaraswamy, who has 37 MLAs, is the CM. How can this be tolerated?"

Mr Yeddyurappa also took the Congress leaders to task over their silence on waiver of farmers' loans. "Mr Kumaraswamy had promised to waive farmers loans within 48 hours of coming to power. But a year has passed and not one Congress leader has asked him why the promise has not been kept. I will not allow the Assembly to transact business at the next session if the loan waiver process is not completed."