'BJP playing caste politics to woo voters'

The BJP has been seeking votes in the name of caste, Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar charged on Monday.

He was addressing the gathering during the public election campaign in Belthangady for Mithun Rai, the coalition candidate from Dakshina Kannada constituency.

“The BJP has been playing the Hindutva card. Social justice is not there in the dictionary of the BJP. They have not provided justice to Billava candidates,” the minister alleged.

He also said that the ‘Acche Din’ promised by Prime Minister Modi remained elusive to poor people.

“April 1 is a Black Day for the people of Dakshina Kannada as the Central government took a wrong decision to merge a profit-making Vijaya Bank with the Bank of Baroda and the Dena Bank,” Shivakumar said.

“Sadly, MPs D V Sadananda Gowda, Nalin Kumar Kateel and Shobha Karandlaje, who are from the region, have failed to prevent the merger of the banks or save Vijaya Bank, which took birth in the district,” he pointed out.

Candidate Mithun Rai said that being given the ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections was an honour to a common party worker.

“There is, however, a need for change in the district,” he said and alleged that the present MP Nalin Kumar Kateel had failed in his responsibilities.

He added that he would continue the campaign to save Vijaya Bank.

Belthangady former MLA Vasanth Bangera declared Kateel as the most inactive MP of the constituency.

Bangera mocked BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa, saying that the latter had entered the state Assembly in 1983 as a mere clerk at a rice mill. “Now, he has amassed wealth through corrupt means, like other BJP leaders,” he added.

BJP leader Ranjan Gowda and his supporters joined the Congress party on the occasion. District In-charge Minister U T Khader, former ministers B Ramanath Rai and Gangadhar Gowda, JD(S) district president M B Sadashiva, MLCs Ivan D’Souza and Harish Kumar and SCDCC Bank chairman M N Rajendra Kumar were present.