The bitter and intense campaign for the high-stake Karnataka Assembly polls ended on Thursday with all eyes on the turnout on the D-day on March 12. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi connected with the voters through ModiApp from Delhi on Thursday, Congress president Rahul Gandhi fired at him from the “ground zero” in Bengaluru.
In his address via “app” to the ST/ST/slum morcha workers of the BJP, the PM spoke about Dalit welfare programmes undertaken by his Government and slammed the Congress for ignoring BR Ambedkar.
He also reminded the party workers that the BJP had the maximum number of MPs belonging to the SC/ST, OBC and minority communities. Modi criticised the Congress for not allowing Parliament to function and scuttling the move to give Constitutional status to the OBC Commission.
Modi held 21 rallies criss-crossing the State, while Rahul addressed 10 rallies and reached out to people by holding roadshows.
Many pre-poll surveys are predicting a fractured mandate with the JD(S) playing a kingmaker role. More than 25 senior leaders from the BJP campaigned on the last day of the campaign.
Addressing a Press conference in Bengaluru, Rahul Gandhi on Thursday slammed Modi for distracting public from real issues and claimed that the Congress will win hands down in the State. He also said it’s a war of ideologies and RSS wants to take over Karnataka.
When asked about his possibility of becoming Prime Minister in 2019, Rahul said it all depends on his party emerging as the single largest party in 2019.
“The Congress has fought a very good campaign. We’ve all stood together. Our party is completely united. We fought the campaign on the fundamental issues. We put down in front of the people a vision for Karnataka…our Opposition is restricted on making personal attacks on the Chief Minister, Khargeji, me… and other leaders. They haven’t really put down what they want to do for Karnataka,” he said.
Criticising the PM for making irresponsible comments during the campaign, Rahul said, “A PM should never say anything baseless… He has belittled the chair. This has become like a comedy show… We have great respect for the PM’s chair. Even when he went on personal attacks on us, we just responded in decent manner.”
Hitting out at Modi for his reference to Sonia’s foreign origin, Rahul said, “My mother is an Italian. She has lived the larger part of her life in India. She is more Indian than many, many Indians I have seen.”
“She has sacrificed her life for the country and suffered for the country. When Modi makes such comments, it shows the quality of the man. I am happy if he enjoys making such comments, he is welcome,” he added.
The issue of Sonia’s foreign origin was raked up by Modi at a rally recently where he dared the Congress chief to speak for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Karnataka Government in any language, including his “mother’s mother tongue”.
Rahul declared, “Our programmes are not restricted to one religion or caste but for all religions and castes and communities. All the indications suggest that the Congress will retain power.”
On Rafael deal, the Congress chief took a jibe at Modi and questioned who will be benefited by that deal. He said, “I agree the Rafael deal was good, but for whomIJ The company with a 45K-crore debtIJ Thousands of technical jobs with highest value would have come to Karnataka. It’s absolutely great slashing deal for his friend.”
Rahul also questioned the PM on his stance on corruption. “Our PM comes and says he fights for corruption. Well, obviously his chief ministerial candidate Yeddyurappa has spent time in jail… Reddy brothers have stolen as much money from Karnataka .The PM needs to answer why in none of the speeches he talks about of the eight seats he has given to Reddy brothers and why the CBI has become CB of illegal mining.”
The Congress chief questioned the PM over his silence on Dokhlam when he visited China and said it was a failure of foreign policy. “I expected the PM in China to go as the leader of our country and stand right there and tell the Chinese about Dokhlam. The PM went to China after the Chinese entered Dokhlam and didn’t mention a word about it,” he added.