Chief Minister Siddaramaiah campaigned in Gokak for Congress nominee Mrinal Hebbalkar on Tuesday.
He urged the people to vote for Mrinal Hebbalkar as it will empower him. “I want you to think that your candidate is not Mrinal Hebbalkar. It is Siddaramaiah,” he said.
“I will feel empowered if Mrinal Hebbalkar is elected from Belagavi parliamentary constituency,” the Chief Minister said.
He was speaking after inaugurating a Prajadhwani meeting at the Walmiki Maidan in Gokak.
He accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not having fulfilled any of the promises he had made to the people in the last decade. Since they have no achievements to show, they are spreading lies and speaking about sensational issues based on false propaganda, he claimed.
In the last elections, the BJP came to power on the basis of issues like Article 370 abrogation, Pulwama attack, etc. This time, Mr. Modi has started lying out of desperation, he said.
“Mr. Modi and other leaders are spreading many lies about Karnataka. Mr. Modi has started lying that the Congress will take away reservation from backward classes and give it to Muslims. That is a lie,” he said.
“Mr. Modi says we have no money to pay salaries to government officials. That is another big lie. In fact, the misrule of the BJP government has damaged the State’s finances. But when we came to power, we made sure all contractors and service providers were paid. There is no dearth of funds for development works. No development project has been stopped for the lack of funds in the State,” he claimed.
“This is not an ordinary election. The choices you make here will change the future of the country. If the BJP comes to power, they might take several destructive decisions, including changing the Constitution. The BJP will continue to enrich their corporate friends endlessly, while pushing the common people towards extreme poverty,” he said.
“Mr. Modi is trying to take credit for several programmes and schemes of the Congress-led UPA government. For example, the Food Security Act was enacted during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s tenure. But Mr. Modi is taking credit for it saying he is providing free food to 80% of the population,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
“Mr. Modi promised to bring back blackmoney from off-shore accounts and distribute it the poor, amounting to around ₹15 lakh per person. However, even after a decade of the NDA rule, there is not a single rupee that has been brought back or distributed. Mr. Modi promised creation of two crore jobs per year. Forget two crore, the Union government has not been able to create even 20 lakh jobs in 10 years. On the contrary, the rate of unemployment is increasing,” he said.
“After the implementation of guarantee schemes in Karnataka and Telangana, people have come to trust the Congress. If our government comes to power at the Centre, one lakh rupees will be given to a family under the Mahalakshmi Yojane,” he said.
District in-charge Minister Satish Jarkiholi, Ministers Lakshmi Hebbalkar and M.C. Sudhakar, MLA Laxman Savadi, leaders B.K. Sangamesh, Puttaranga Shetty, Asif Raju Seth, Nayana Motamma, Kerala MLA Roji John, MLC Nagaraj Yadav, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes Nomadic Development Corporation president Pallavi G., Bhovi Corporation president Praveen Kumar and others were present.
