Karnataka has India’s most corrupt govt, says Rahul Gandhi

With Assembly elections a year away, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday asked his party to win not less than 150 seats in the 2023 Assembly polls and launched a major offensive against the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government.

“India’s most corrupt government is in Karnataka,” Rahul said during his address to party leaders and workers.

“PM Modi used to talk about corruption. Today, if he talks about corruption in Karnataka where there’s a 40 per cent commission government, then people of the state will laugh,” he said, referring to the Karnataka State Contractors Association going public with its complaint that they are forced to pay huge kickbacks.

Rahul said the BJP government in Karnataka was made using “financial resources and subterfuge”, referring to the 2019 defections.

“No BJP leader can go on stage and talk about economy, corruption and jobs,” Rahul said. “The biggest issue facing Karnataka and the country is unemployment. The economic collapse with price rise and unemployment means that our economy, which was our strength, is now our weakness,” he said.

Accusing the BJP of crony capitalism, Rahul said the Modi administration is taking money from the poor people to make a handful of people richer. “This is a financial transfer mechanism,” he said. “The idea is to divide the country, which is called polarisation, by making religions and castes fight.”

Rahul charged that the BJP cannot provide jobs even if it wants to because small businesses, which he said were India’s strength, have been destroyed because of demonetisation and “wrong” GST. “The damage is already caused and there’ll be more,” he said.

The Congress’ responsibility is to raise real issues, he said, such as unemployment, repairing the economy and bringing people together. “They break, we fix,” he said. “We should do this and show it in Karnataka.”

According to Rahul, winning 150 seats in Karnataka is “quite easy” for the Congress. “Karnataka has always had the spirit of Congress. This is a natural Congress state,” he said. “We shouldn’t aim to win the election with a close margin. It should be a decisive victory with not less than 150 seats,” he said.

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