On his fourth visit to poll-bound Karnataka on Friday,  BJP national president Amit Shah hit out at Congress for mocking his recent blooper and said he might have made a mistake but people of Karnataka will not do so when they cast their votes. “In a slip of tongue, I said that Yeddyurappa government is corrupt instead of Siddaramaiah’s — and the entire Congress party started to rejoice,” he said in Mysuru on Friday. “I want to tell Rahul Gandhi that I might have made a mistake but the people of Karnataka will not,” he added.

The  BJP chief said that the ruling Congress, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, will not retain power in the next elections by murdering BJP workers. Alleging that more than 24 BJP workers had been murdered in the recent past across the State, Shah said, “the countdown of Siddaramaiah government has started and Karnataka will soon be Congress-Mukt.”

Shah, after conveying his condolence to family members of BJP worker Raju who was murdered recently, promised that after the BJP government headed by  Yeddyurappa comes to power, the culprits would be brought to books and put behind bars. Shah alleged that under Siddaramaiah, the law and order had failed and crime, including rape, murders and chain snatching had been increasing every day and the state police had failed to arrest the culprits behind the murders. later, addressing party workers, he attacked the ruling Congress government for its appeasement politics and said if his party comes to power they would arrest the killers of RSS and BJP workers. Shah  said he expected Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the JD(S) to get the “biggest shock of their lives” from the old Mysuru region in the May 12 Assembly polls, though his party is said to be “a bit weak” there.

Of the 26 Assembly seats in the four districts, considered a Vokkaliga heartland, the BJP had not won even a single one in the 2013 Karnataka Assembly polls. Moreover, the region is the home turf of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who hails from Mysuru. The contest in old Mysuru is mainly between the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), led by former prime minister HD Deve Gowda. Shah said it was the BJP, and not the JD(S), which had the ability to throw out the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government as Deve Gowda’s party would only secure “a very few seats here and there”.

“The Congress cannot take Karnataka on the path of development any further because its image has been soiled with corruption and the JD(S) does not have the ability to overthrow the Congress, because it can only win a few seats here and there,” he said. Shah asked the people of Mysuru to make a choice between a “commission government” and a government which would take Karnataka on the path of development.

Shah also visited Chamundi Hills in Mysuru and met Suttur’s Shivaratri Deshikendra Swamiji at JSS Math. Shah who arrived at Mysuru on Thursday night, has a tight schedule with visits to many religious institutions and major temples including the Srikanteshwara temple at Nanjangud, Cheluvarauyswamy temple at Melukote besides interaction with booth-level workers.

He also had a dinner meeting slated with prominent scheduled caste and scheduled tribe leaders in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.

His meeting with the seer of  Suttur Mutt is significant as the mutt has powerful influence on  lingayat  community. The assembly polls are crucial for both the Congress and the BJP.