Thousands of Congress workers gave a rousing welcome to leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah here on Saturday. The convention also set the stage for the upcoming byelection in Hunsur.

Speaking on the occasion, Siddaramaiah again targeted the BJP for proposing the name of Veer Savarkar for the ‘Bharat Ratna’ award. “BJP brings ideas that stoke the passions of the people, whenever there are elections. It is their attempt to push development issues under the carpet,” he said.

“Our request seeking Bharat Ratna for Siddaganga seer Shivakumara Swami was not considered. But the name of Savarkar, who was accused in the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, and later acquitted due to lack of evidence, is proposed. It was Savarkar, who used the word ‘Hindutva’. He was the president of Hindu Mahasabha. It is a fact that he had gone to jail”, Siddaramaiah said.

“BJP has said that I do not know history, for opposing Savarkar’s name. The party’s state president (Kateel) does not know about Karnataka and is speaking about 34 districts in the state,” he taunted.

BJP is trying to convince the people by repeating the same lies. The leaders are adopting Hitler’s tactics. There is not much difference between them and Hitler, he criticised.

Crime has increased after BJP government came to power. Murders are being executed in the name of cow protection. RSS chief Mohan Bhagavat is justifying this. Has the RSS people ever collected dung and looked after the cattle? he said.

Siddaramaiah announced the name of H P Manjunath, as the Congress candidate for the by-elections in Hunsur.

KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao said, the Centre has used I-T department as a weapon and conducted raids on the houses of Congress leaders. There is a conspiracy to raid Siddaramaiah’s house also. The people will not be quiet, if they touch him, he warned.