Hitting the campaign trail for the May 5 Assembly polls here, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday charged the BJP Government in Karnataka as corrupt.
The day after Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressed an election rally in Bangalore attacking the UPA Government and the Congress’ dynastic politics, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh started his election campaign from Hubli in north Karnataka and sought for a change.
Singh said the BJP had changed three Chief Ministers in the last five years and a probe had been ordered against several of its leaders on charge of corruption. He also said bad governance and corruption had slackened State’s progress and a sense of insecurity was prevalent among the minorities.
He said, “...bad governance, carelessness in development works and above all corruption has led to the slackening of progress in Karnataka. I am particularly unhappy about the lack of development, especially in minority pockets like Raichur, Bellary, Gulbarga and Bidar... lack of communal harmony and sense of insecurity among the minorities is prevalent.”
Singh said attention was neither being paid to agriculture nor to employment. A number of irrigation works are incomplete and even the works taken up under accelerated irrigation development programme was unsatisfactory.
Also, no attention has been paid to infrastructure, resulting in a number of industries going to Hyderabad and Pune, he said. Singh also said he had come to Karnataka on behalf of the Congress to ask for votes as only the Congress could work for the State’s development.
Apart from a battery of leaders like lK Advani, Sonia Gandhi, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Mayawati, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi, Rajnath Singh, a host of other leaders are vigorously campaigning for their candidates for the May 5 Assembly elections.
Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi had campaigned in the State and said the BJP Government in Karnataka has created a “world record” in corruption but the party is talking about corruption of the Central Government.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addressing a huge rally in Bangalore on Sunday blasted the UPA and the dynastic politics of the Congress. Without naming them, he also came down heavily on Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi.
The Prime Minister also addressed a rally in Kumabalagodu on the outskirts of Bangalore.