Siddaramaiah launches tirade against Nalin Kumar Kateel

He urges Congress workers to ensure BJP doesn’t capture MCC

Congress leaders Siddaramaiah, B. Ramanath Rai, and U.T. Khader at a party programme in Mangaluru on Friday.

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah on Friday launched a no-holds-barred attack on State Bharatiya Janata Party president Nalin Kumar Kateel in his home turf, terming him an “ignorant person”.

Addressing a meeting of Congress workers from Mangaluru city here, the former Chief Minister said Mr. Kateel, MP for Dakshina Kannada, knows neither the State’s economy nor it geography. He was just a puppet in the hands of Santhosh (B.L. Santhosh, BJP national general secretary), the Congress leader said.

Mr. Siddaramaiah said he accosted Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa with the reported statement of Mr. Kateel that the previous governments had looted the State exchequer and the economy was in bad shape.

“The Chief Minister told me that it was not so and Mr. Kateel was not right.” Such was the ignorance of Mr. Kateel about the economy, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

Mr. Kateel does not even know the geography of the State and the number of districts it has. Some times, he says there are 31 districts and some other time, he says 32 districts. Let him mention the number of taluks in the State, Mr. Siddaramaiah dared.

Referring to the inordinate delay in the execution of infrastructure projects, including the long-pending construction of Pumpwell Flyover on NH 66 in Mangaluru, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered whether Mr. Kateel raised this issue on the floor of the Lok Sabha at least once.

MCC elections

Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP undertook a false campaign during the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections while the Congress failed to nail the falsehood and lost the polls. This time around, Congress workers should go to town telling people about the contribution of the party and the false claims of the BJP, he said. If the BJP comes to power in the Mangaluru City Corporation council, all development works undertaken by the Congress regime would go in vein. Development would take the back seat during the BJP rule, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

Congress leaders from the district, including the former Minister B. Ramanath Rai, district Congress president and MLC K. Harish Kumar, MLA U.T. Khader, MLC Ivan D’Souza, and former MLA J.R. Lobo were present.