Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Wednesday, attacked the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi for his double standards on corruption. Modi has the likes of Yeddyurappa, Eshwarappa, Ananth Kumar and Sadananda Gowda, whenever speaks in the State about graft, Siddaramaiah said.

He was addressing a Congress rally to seek votes for the party’s candidate for Saleem Ahmed, the party’s candidate for the Haveri seat, at Mundaragi in the district. 

Siddaramaiah claimed that the State was ahead of Gujarat, Modi’s home state, in industrial development. He defended the populist schemes of his government like subsidised rice for the poor, saying that there were more poor people in the State than the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil, Nadu and Kerala.

Defending his remarks against Narendra Modi, Siddaramaiah said in Hubli that that there was no Modi wave in Karnataka.

Reacting to Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy’s allegation about his role in protecting those involved in illegal mining, Siddaramaiah said Kumaraswamy had no moral right to level such an allegation against him, as he (Kumaraswamy) too faced illegal mining charges.

“There is no question of protecting anybody involved in illegal mining activities.
 Kumaraswamy’s statement is politically motivated. Let him release documents to support his allegation,” the chief minister said.

‘No load-shedding’ 

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that there was no need for load-shedding in the State as the technical snag at the Bellary and Udupi power plants had been rectified.

The State does not have a power shortage presently, and the Udupi and Bellary plants are supplying 1,100 MW, he told mediapersons.