Bengaluru: Virtually kicking off his party’s campaign for the coming assembly poll, state BJP president B.S.Yeddyurappa declared on Thursday while setting off on his 36-day tour of drought- hit districts that his party would fight “ this corrupt government in big way” and organise protest rallies across the state to take it on.
“Mr Siddaramaiah has criticised me for going on this tour after it has begun raining in some part of Karnataka, but this is the second leg of my party’s tour. Our leaders have already covered over 5000 kms across the state to assess the drought,” he said at the inaugural event of his tour in Tumakuru.
Once again coming down heavily on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for not releasing funds from the state budget for drought relief work, he charged that it was “completely dead,” and unresponsive to the people’s needs.
“Once we come to power, we will waive the farmers’ loans, but I want to see Mr. Siddaramaiah doing this as well before he quits his post,” Mr. Yeddyurappa maintained. Heaping praise on Union Minister for Fertilizers and Chemicals, Ananth Kumar, for reducing the price of urea and increasing its production, he claimed the Centre was doing everything possible to develop the country, but the state government’s contribution was zero. “It was the BJP government in the state that began work on drinking water projects in Tumakuru, but the Siddaramaiah government has released no money for the district,” he charged.
Among those present at the function was senior leader, K S Eshwarappa, who has finally decided to join the official party tour despite his differences with Mr Yeddyurappa. Later, the BJP chief visited the Siddaganga Mutt in Tumakuru accompanied by Union ministers, Ananth Kumar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, before setting off for Chitradurga as part of the tour.
