Expressing his discontentment over Karadi Sanganna’s resignation from the BJP primary membership and joining the Congress, BJP leader and former Minister C.T. Ravi said that only the priest has left the temple and not the deity, equating the priest to Mr. Sanganna and the deity to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP.
“We go to temple to seek blessings from the deity and not the priest. The fruits that the priest Karadi Sanganna distributed among you were originally offered by God Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP. Now, only the priest has left that temple and not the God,” Mr. Ravi said at a public meeting in Koppal on Wednesday.
Mr. Sanganna, who won the Koppal Lok Sabha seat consecutively on BJP ticket, quit the party on Tuesday and joined the Congress on Wednesday as he was denied BJP ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections this time.
Mr. Ravi also criticised the Congress government for its guarantee schemes saying that the government is grabbing money from the male head of the family to give it to the female head of the family.
“The Congress government in the State has increased prices of liquor and fees for essential services to loot the people. It keeps the majority of the loot in its pocket and distributes a part of it among the people in the name of guarantee schemes. The Congress has mastered the art of robbing the people of their riches,” he said.
BJP leader Janardhan Reddy said that Mr. Sanganna’s soul is in the BJP, though his body is now in the Congress.
“Mr. Sanganna has been offered Congress ticket for Gangavati Assembly segment in the next Assembly elections. It is a big bomb on the head of Iqbal Ansari, Congress candidate for Gangavati in the last Assembly elections,” Mr. Reddy revealed.
The former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, the former Ministers B. Sriramulu, Halappa Achar, Venkatarao Nadagouda, Murugesh Nirani and Byrati Basavaraj, the former Parliamentarians Shivarama Gowda and K. Virupakshappa, BJP candidate in Koppal Basavaraj Kyavater and other senior leaders were present.
