BELAGAVI: Hitting out at former chief minister Siddaramaiah without mentioning the latter's name, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the former CM did nothing for the welfare of the backward classes.
"What have you (Siddaramaiah) done for the development of backward classes? You have merely delivered speeches on social justice,'' said Bommai.
Inaugurating various developmental works in Gokak on Tuesday, Bommai slammed the Congress leadership, particularly Siddaramaiah for trying to create a rift between communities for the sake of votes and said the Congress party today was working like Shakuni.
"The BJP has been trying to take all the religions and communities together while the Congress did politics in the name of religion, castes and classes for a long time. But now, all the communities have woken up,'" he said.
"A Congress leader called me Shakuni and a dog, but I told him I am the loyal dog of the people of Karnataka. The Congress leaders are hypocrites," he added.
While stating that his government would hand over 60 cases linked to the Congress government to the Lokayukta along with all the evidence to support it, he said, let there be an investigation into all of them.
Bommai said Belagavi had been playing a crucial role in state politics and that state politics always took a similar line.
"Ours is a party of nationalists while their (Congress) party is one which supports anti-nationals.'' He expressed confidence that the BJP would win all the 18 assembly seats in the Belagavi district in the upcoming assembly election.
On the occasion, Arabhavi MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi said the Rs 900 crore worth Ghatti Basavanna Dam to which CM laid the foundation stone in Gokak on Tuesday, would help overcome drinking water scarcity in the entire Gokak region.
Expressing confidence that the BJP would retain power in the state after the coming election, Jarkiholi said his government would then construct houses that collapsed in the floods.
"We have been developing the Jath-Jamboti road and also inaugurating the Kalmadi lift irrigation project. In all, we are today laying the foundation and inaugurating developmental works, which were estimated at Rs 2500 crore," he said.
Jarkiholi has said the Lingayat votes should not divide among different political parties but the BJP should be able to get their support given the fact that it was the only party that made Lingayat the Chief Minister.
