Copycat Modi? ex-CM flays BJP poll promises

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, who has become the party’s Karnataka face to take Prime Minister Narendra Modi head on, claimed that the BJP’s poll promises were copied from the achievements of the government he headed as chief minister.

In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah targeted Modi ahead of his rally scheduled in Bengaluru on April 13. “Modi’s repeated visits to Namma Bengaluru is to copy our achievements and paste it in their manifestos and speeches,” Siddaramaiah wrote, christening Modi as a copycat. “It would have been great if they had actually implemented pan India in the last five years instead of just pasting it.”

The BJP’s poll promise of interest-free farm loans up to Rs one lakh was implemented by his government in 2013, Siddaramaiah pointed out. “They are lagging behind even at promising.”

On pensions, the state government gave Rs 600 pension to senior citizens from low- income families. This, Siddaramaiah said, has now increased to Rs 800. “Small farmers are just a subset of the beneficiary pool. Modi promises to pay pension to small farmers which is already being paid by the state government,” he said.

Rural road development was another area where he accused Modi of plagiarism. “More than 14,000 km of rural roads was already laid under Namma Hola Namma Daari and Namma Grama Namma Raste while Modi was preparing his speeches and manifesto that now promises to lay rural roads,” he said. “I can just go on...”