‘CM speaking of U.P. model, a State at the bottom’

“While the State has excelled in several fields and has successfully implemented several administrative reforms, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is talking about the Uttar Pradesh model, a State which is at the bottom at the national level,” chairman of KPCC campaign committee and former Minister M.B. Patil has said.

Addressing a press conference in Hubballi on Saturday, Mr. Patil said that under the BJP government there was zero development and the only achievement was that they had increased loan burden on the State to ₹2.4 lakh crore.

Mr. Patil said that while Prime Minister Narendra Modi kept speaking about not tolerating corruption, his own government in Karnataka had been accused of demanding 40% commission.

“The complaint was filed by the president of the contractors’ association and the same has been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office also. Till date no action has been taken,” he said.

Referring to the IT and ED raids on Ministers of the AAP, the TMC, and others, Mr. Patil sought to know why no raids had been conducted on BJP Ministers in Karnataka who have been accused of asking “40% commission”.

He also referred to the statement of Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy who had said they were just managing the government and said it showed the kind of governance being given by the BJP government.

“They have spoiled the whole government mechanism and have also spoiled the fiscal health of the State. We are confident of winning at least 150 seats in the next election. However, it will take at least two years for the Congress after coming to power to set right the things and bring the State back on track,” he said.

The former Minister said that the Congress workers would go to the people’s doorsteps to sensitise the voters on the misrule of the BJP, both at the State and the Centre, and also educate them on what the Congress did for the development of the country.

“We have 80 lakh members to work for the party,” he said, adding that there was a good response for the party across the State.

Mr. Patil said that the BJP kept asking what had the Congress done for the nation in the last seven decades. The fact was that whatever growth India had achieved was due to the visionary steps of Congress leaders starting from Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Manmohan Singh, and others.

Mr. Patil sought to know where were the ‘2 crore a year’ jobs promised by Mr. Modi. “In the last eight years, there should have been at least 16 crore jobs. But even existing jobs have been lost. Instead of doubling the farm income, the BJP government has doubled the revenue of private insurance companies and there is no news of black money,” he said.