Kota Srinivas Poojary, MLC, said on Friday that if the Congress returned to power, the poor would remain poor, and even after 100 years, they would have to depend on Indira Canteens.
He was speaking after launching a publicity vehicle for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for Udupi Assembly Constituency, K. Raghupati Bhat, here.
Mr. Poojary said that though the Congress had ruled the country for nearly six decades, it had failed to provide basic facilities for the poor. But within four years of coming to power, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given a major thrust to electrification of villages, he said.
Nearly 50 % of development in the district had been affected due to a lack of proper sand extraction policy. The problem of demarcation of deemed forests and revenue land had not been completed. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was dividing society on the basis of religion and caste, Mr. Poojary said.
Later in the day, Mr. Bhat visited the Jamia Masjid here seeking votes from the Muslim community.
When mediapersons asked for his response to senior BJP leader K.S. Eshwarappa’s statement that the BJP did not require Muslim votes, Mr. Bhat said that he (Mr. Bhat) had never said that he did not want votes from the Muslim community.
“If that is so, I would not have come here to seek votes. We want people of all communities. There has been communal harmony in Udupi since the times of philanthropist late Haji Abdulla Saheb (1882-1935),” he said.
People had seen the work done during the BJP rule both in the State and Udupi municipality. Hence, they would vote for the BJP. “We are getting the expected response from the Muslim community,” he said.
On Udupi-Chikkamgaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje’s statement that Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not visit the Sri Krishna Mutt/Temple due to security reasons, Mr. Bhat said that Ms. Karandlaje might have said that “by mistake”. Mr. Modi did not visit the temple because of a decision taken by the Prime Minister’s Office that the Prime Minister will not visit any places of worship. Security at the temple was not the reason, he said.
