K’taka has ‘Dhai CM sarkar’: Shah

BJP national president Amit Shah on Thursday dubbed the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition as “dhai CM sarkar” (government of two-and-a-half chief ministers), while launching a scathing attack specifically targeting Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his pet scheme crop loan waiver.

“It’s a strange situation in Karnataka. Kumaraswamy calls himself a clerk, Siddaramaiah is the super CM and G Parameshwara is half CM. This dhai CM sarkar can’t develop Karnataka. The Congress-JD(S) alliance is an example of what the mahagathbandhan has in store at the national level,” Shah said.

The BJP chief was addressing Shakti Kendra chiefs of the Vokkaliga-dominated Kolar, Tumkur and Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha seats as part of the saffron party’s preparation for the upcoming polls. A Shakti Kendra is a cluster of 4-5 polling booths where party workers act as micro election managers.

Shah targeted Kumaraswamy, which has been the saffron party’s strategy after the audiogate setback.

The functioning of the “unholy” Congress-JD(S) coalition, Shah said, was a reflection of the how the grand alliance at the national front will be. “Nobody is ready to accept one another as the leader. Even H D Deve Gowda wants to become the prime minister. An alliance that has no leader, no principles - will it do any good for India? They’re not able to even decide who the PM will be,” he said.

Kumaraswamy’s crop loan waiver scheme also came under Shah’s radar. “Farmers were promised a loan waiver of Rs 48,000 crore. But loans worth only Rs 1,600 crore have been waived. Farmers have been cheated,” Shah said.

He hailed the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme in which 13 crore to 15 crore farmers will receive Rs 6,000 each in their bank accounts at a cost of Rs 75,000 crore every year.

“In the 10 years it was in power, the UPA waived farm loans once at a cost of Rs 53,000 crore benefiting 5 crore farmers. In our scheme, farmers will get Rs 75,000 crore every year. But Rahul doesn’t know math. He doesn’t even know if potato grows below ground, above ground or is manufacted in a factory. He has promised a potato factory. I don’t know who writes his speeches,” he said.

Shah made it a point to invoke Bengaluru’s founder Kempegowda, since it was at his birthplace Avati that the event was held.