“All guarantees given by the Congress to the people of the country in the past have fallen flat. That will be the fate that will befall the new guarantees that the party is giving to the people of Karnataka,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday.
BJP candidates Mahantesh Dodagoudar from Kittur and Jagadish Metgud from Bailhongal, Member of Parliament Mangala Angadi, Rajya Sabha member Iranna Kadadi, former Rajya Sabha member Prabhakar Kore and others were present.
Addressing a campaign rally at Bailawad Cross near Bailhongal in Belagavi district, he said that the Congress has been unable to fulfil all its promises and it will not succeed in keeping the new ones also. “Lying is part of the Congress ethos. That party’s track record for performance is poor. It is full of promises that are never kept,” he said.
BJP leaders presenting a statue of Rani Channamma and a woolen shawl to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a BJP campaign rally at Bailawad Cross near Bailhongal in Belagavi district on Wednesday. | Photo Credit: P.K. Badiger
“I just want to remind the young first-time voters about the problems faced by their parents and to tell them that I am working hard to see that they don’t suffer as their parents did,” he said. He said that in 2009, the Congress-led government had promised to provide broadband internet connections to every gram panchayats in the country in three years but failed to do so. “In five years, that Congress government could reach only a 100 gram panchayats or so. However, the BJP has been able to extend broadband connectivity to over two lakh villages and gram panchayats. This is the level of efficiency of the BJP when compared to those leaders who are going around giving speech after speech about guarantees,” he said.
He said that India has left behind several developed countries in its achievements in the field of digital connectivity under the Digital India Scheme. It has improved service delivery, brought changes in higher education and even farming, he added.
“The Congress has not been able to achieve anything at the all-India level and it can do no better in Karnataka,” he said. He threw a question at young voters, “Do you want a party that could reach only 100 gram panchayats or a party that would reach over two lakh voters?”, and sought replies from the crowd.
“In 2004, the Congress extended a guarantee that in two-three years, each house will get electricity supply. But it failed again. When you sent me to Delhi in 2014, I found that the Congress government had completely failed. There were 2.5 crore houses in the country that did not have power connections and were cursed to spend their life in the dark. A large proportion of them were houses belonging to SCs/STs/OBC communities,” he said.
“Even in Belagavi, over 40,000 houses were in the dark. The BJP brought power to all those houses. Modi has done your job,” he said.
“The Congress is tired and defeated. It cannot do any good to the country,” he said. “It has betrayed the people all along. But we are working for your welfare. You are my family,” he added.
He said that in 2004, the Congress promised to blend 5% ethanol in petrol. “But even after 10 years, it had not achieved 3% blending. However, we have achieved the target of 10% well before the deadline,” he said.
This has led to sugar factories earning more money. In the last nine years, ethanol worth ₹17,000 crore has been purchased from sugar factories, adding to their revenue. This is benefiting sugarcane growers, he said.
He said that due to its corruption and inefficient governance, the Congress had pushed the country into darkness. It had no solution for the problems faced by farmers, poor, SCs/STs/OBCs, youth and women. In fact, it had neither intention nor commitment to resolving their issues. However, “we are trying to solve the problems one by one,” he said.
