Cong has truck with JD(S) for polls: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the Congress has struck a pact with the JD(S) for Assembly polls in the state.

Addressing election rallies, he remarked: “the Congress should clarify whether it has struck a pact with the JD(S) for the coming Assembly polls. We all know the arrangement between the Congress and the JD(S) in Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike.” The Congress is ruling the BBMP with the support of the JD(S).

Modi exuded confidence that the BJP would form the government. “According to the pre-poll surveys, the JD(S) will finish third and the BJP will form the government.”

“The Congress is desperate and somehow wants to grab power. It has lost in Goa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal and the Northeastern states. Now, it will lose in Karnataka too,” Modi said.

Modi upped the ante against the state government, charging that it has become a “corruption tank” for the Congress with a pipeline connected to Delhi, “where the money reaches directly”.

Modi praises Gowda

Modi again praised JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda during his speech. “When Deve Gowda came to meet me, I told him the country needs the experience and services of the seasoned politicians like you. I had persuaded him to be in public life”, he said. On the Mahadayi water dispute, Modi blamed the Congress and its former president Sonia Gandhi for the lingering issue.

Addressing an election rally in Gadag, he said: “the Congress has played politics over Mahadayi river water-sharing issue. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is not aware of what the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi had said about Mahadayi issue during the election in Goa in 2007.”

Siddaramaiah was in a different party then, he said recalling Sonia Gandhi’s statement that the UPA government would not allow diversion of Mahadayi waters to North Karnataka districts,” Modi charged. He added: “the Union government is ready to talk to the riparian states and resolve the Mahadayi water sharing issue amicably.”

The prime minister said the Union government stonewalled the Siddaramaiah-led state government’s plans to plunder the natural resources of Kappatagudda range.

“Congress leaders were planning to fill their coffers by looting the mineral-rich Kappatagudda Hills. The state government tried to remove conservation reserve tag for the biodiversity-rich hills. But the Union government foiled the state government’s plans and made sure the reserve forest tag was restored,” Modi said.