Karnataka Election: Campaigning In Full Swing On Last Day

Karnataka: The last leg of campaigning for the upcoming Karnataka election on Saturday, saw BJP and Congress rallying their forces.

At least 50 senior leaders, including party chief Amit Shah and Union Ministers. of the saffron party will be addressing rallies and roadshows across the state on Thursday.

Addressing a rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about his government’s initiatives and accused the Congress of not showing proper respect to B R Ambedkar. “Till the Congress was in power, Baba Saheb was not given Bharat Ratna,” he said.

Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman, Ananth Kumar, Prakash Javadekar, Piyush Goyal, DV Sadananda Gowda, Anurag Thakur, Krishnapal Gujjar and Santosh Gangwar are among the leaders scheduled to address around 50 mega roadshows across Karnataka. Amit Shah,too, will hold a roadshow at Badami, the constituency from where Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is contesting.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi accompanied by Siddaramaiah, Mallikarjun Kharge and Dr G Parmeshwara, also addressed the media. “Here, I am confident of the outcome. This is an election between two ideologies,” he said.

Replying to the PM’s dig at his mother Sonia Gandhi’s Italian origin, Rahul said she is more Indian than many Indians he had seen. During an election rally, Modi had challenged him to “speak for 15 minutes on the achievements of the Congress government- in Hindi, English or your mother’s mother tongue”.

He went on to speak about his mother’s sacrifices for the country and about Modi’s insensitivity. “It shows the quality of the prime minister when he makes these types of comments. It shows the quality of this man. And I’m happy to let him do so. If he enjoys himself, if he likes it, welcome. Have a nice day,” he said.

According to opinion polls, HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal, which has tied-up with Mayawati’s BSP for the elections, may emerge as the kingmaker.

The votes for this election to 224 seats, will be counted on May 15.