MANGALURU: The Congress sounded its Lok Sabha poll bugle in the BJP stronghold of Mangaluru on Saturday with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launching a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing a mammoth Congress convention, Kharge appealed to people to defeat Modi’s BJP in the coming Lok Sabha elections, stating that he will become a dictator if the party wins again and there will be no elections in the country in future.
Kharge accused Modi of trying to take control of the judiciary, media, and ED and I-T departments and asked people not to make him powerful. The country will progress only if Congress is made powerful, he said.
Slamming the Centre for freezing the AICC’s bank accounts, he said the accounts have Congress workers’ hard-earned money. He accused the BJP of taking Rs 6,000 crore from black money hoarders.
Stating that Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts benefited the most from the Tenancy Act introduced by Indira Gandhi, Kharge rued that the people of these districts had forgotten it and had joined hands with the saffron party.
Referring to BJP flags put up in Mangaluru, he sought to know if people here got Rs 15 lakh in their bank accounts, jobs and development as promised by Modi.
He said, “You have forgotten our past achievements. At least you remember our six guarantees. These guarantees have awakened Modi. He has also started promising guarantees. But what happened to his old guarantees (promises)?”
Modi failed to keep his promises: Siddaramaiah
Siddaramaiah tried to draw a comparison between his promises and those made by Modi and said he (Modi) ‘failed’ to keep his promises made in the last 10 years. “I managed to fulfil the promised guarantees within eight months of coming to power,” he added.
Stating that the people of coastal Karnataka are intelligent, Siddaramaiah asked them to punish Modi for ‘failing’ to keep his promises of generating two crore jobs a year, bringing back black money stashed abroad, and not doubling the farmers’ income. Stating that the guarantee schemes introduced by his government have helped lakhs of people, he expressed confidence that the Congress will win at least 20 of the 28 LS seats in the state.
He said the prime minister, who spoke against the Congress’ guarantees, is now offering “Modi guarantees”. Deputy CM DK Shivakumar and AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala spoke.