Chief Minister Siddaramaiah charged the BJP and Sangh Parivar with conspiring to spread communal tension in the state.
“They should respect the law of the land,” he said addressing the Congress rally at M Visvesvaraya stadium here on Monday.
Asserting that the government has a zero tolerance policy towards moral policing, Siddaramaiah said he instructed the police not to allow anybody to take law into their hands. “We won’t allow the BJP and its allies to pose a threat to communal harmony,” he added.
Alleging that the previous corrupt BJP government had failed to maintain law and order, he said the Congress will protect all the communities. Claiming that the Congress will win over 25 seats in the state in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, he said the government will develop the state in the next five years.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G Parameshwara said the state will never open its doors for the BJP again.
Ridiculing the BJP’s claim that the party’s victory in the 2008 Assembly elections was a prelude to its growth in South India, he said the people, fed up with the previous government, elected the Congress with a thumping majority.
He said the state Congress worked as one unit under the leadership of AICC president Sonia Gandhi and won the bypoll to Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha as well as the Assembly elections.
He said the recent bypolls disproved that Mandya and Kanakapura constituencies were strongholds of the JD(S), as the Congress was elected with a huge margin.
Former Minister D K Shivakumar stole the show with his speech highlighting the welfare programmes undertaken by the government.
The Congress leaders were unhappy that no leader from the backward communities or dalits was given an opportunity to address the gathering.