BENGALURU: Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who ended his two-day Karnataka trip in Bengaluru on Saturday, said that it is time to put an end to blackmail politics in the state. He was speaking after launching the BJP’s ‘Booth Vijay Abhiyan’ in which the party’s presidents and booth-level agents of 28 Assembly constituencies of Bengaluru participated.
Ruling out any alliance with anyone in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, Shah asked party workers not to be misled by talks about the BJP aligning with other parties, especially JDS.
“We cannot leave a party (referring to JDS) that wins 30-35 seats to continue with its blackmail politics. The time has come for BJP workers to settle scores. A vote for the JDS is a vote for the Congress,” Shah said, adding that both parties are two faces of the same coin.
He dismissed speculation of a triangular fight in Karnataka, saying that it was a straight contest between the BJP and the Congress and JD(S) combined. “The BJP will fight the polls alone and form its own government. I appeal to the people of Karnataka to give a full mandate to us to put an end to family politics, corruption and casteism,” he added.
He also asked the people of the state to choose between ‘deshbhakt’ BJP which protects the state and the country from extremists and Congress and JDS which defend extremists.
“On the one hand, there is BJP and PM Modi who have banned extremist organisations like PFI... and there is Congress that defends the ‘tukde tukde gang’ that wants to break the country,” he thundered.
He said while the BJP under the leadership of Modi has developed Ayodhya, Kashi, Somnath, Kedarnath and Badrinath, the Congress glorifies Tipu Sultan. “In 2022, the BJP won five of the seven states and then went to polls. The Congress failed to even become the primary opposition party in Gujarat due to Modi’s popularity,” he added.
Shah said the BJP takes inspiration from Modi inaugurating the 108-ft statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda at Bengaluru International Airport to win more than 20 of the 28 seats in the state capital. Shah listed out the contributions of the Modi government to Bengaluru, especially Metro rail expansion and hoped that the services to BIA will be operational by 2023 end.
Meanwhile, Shah also visited a prominent Vokkaliga Mutt in Bengaluru on Saturday.