Ahinda communities will never support BJP: Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, people of other backward communities, Dalits and minority communities and the poor would never support the BJP.

Speaking to media persons, on his brief visit to the city on Monday for attending a private function, after his official programme in Mandya district, he said, people are aware of the fact that the BJP is against social justice and reservations in education and jobs.

He was reacting to the resolutions passed in Mysuru, in the just concluded executive committee meeting of the state BJP. “Let BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa tour the districts for 45 days and even more. We are not worried. Has he not toured the state earlier? People know him well. They will never support the BJP,” he said.

Pointing at the corruption charges made by the BJP leaders against him, Siddaramaiah said, people have not yet forgotten that Yeddyurappa had been to jail following corruption charges. “Despite the BJP levelling false corruption charges against our government, the voters of Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly constituencies have rejected the BJP in the bypolls. The BJP leaders have no moral right to speak against corruption. Before uttering something against me and my government, let Yeddyurappa, MP Shobha Karandlaje and Opposition Leader in the Legislative Council K S Eshwarappa look back at their term in the government. Even Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should recall the corrupt days of her party government in Karnataka,” he said.

However, Siddaramaiah declined to comment on the bribery charges against Primary Education Minister Tanveer Sait. In response to the BJP leaders’ demand for the release of a White Paper on the funds released by the Union government, over the past 13 years — 10 years of Congress-led UPA and three years of the BJP-led NDA governments — for tackling the natural calamities like flood and drought, Siddaramaiah said, let them first take steps to release the pending Rs 3,300 crore, as per our demand.

Regretting the statement of Nirmala SItharaman that Karnataka has become a ‘goonda raj’, he said, she should study the ground realities before talking. “If there is no law and order in Karnataka, how are we attracting so much investment in industries,” he questioned.