'Flood aid only for Bihar?': BJP's Yatnal to Centre

The Centre’s delay in announcing flood aid for Karnataka is mounting such pressure on the ruling BJP that former union minister Basangouda Patil Yatnal launched a direct attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

MLA Yatnal, who represents Bijapur City, said the recent developments created a notion among the people that Karnataka was being ignored just to sideline Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa.

“Even after the state suffered devastating floods, Modi didn’t tweet for us, but he did for the people of Bihar,” Yatnal said. “People will ask if Modi tweeted for Bihar just because elections are approaching there. Is this what people get for voting the BJP? The party should take it seriously. Or else, it will lose its ground in south India,” he said.

Yatnal also lashed out at the 25 BJP MPs from Karnataka, saying it was their responsibility to safeguard the interests of the state. In a jibe at Bangalore South MP Tejaswi Surya for his recent remarks that Karnataka didn’t require Central flood aid, Yatnal said, “He doesn’t know any problems. We built the party from scratch. If you know good English, you become an international leader, whereas it is us who work for rural people.”

RSS ideologue Chakravarthy Sulibele said he was “truly disappointed” by the way Modi handled Karnataka’s flood situation. The Congress launched #KarnatakaNeedsJustice campaign after Modi’s Bihar tweet. “Is this discrimination against Karnataka who elected 25 BJP MPs? Is this hatred against Yediyurappa?” Siddaramaiah wrote.

‘Under finalisation’

Following the outrage, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s office tweeted: “The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) visited five districts of Karnataka from 24 to 27 August 2019. The team called on Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa... The report of IMCT is under finalisation.” Nirmala is a Rajya Sabha member representing Karnataka.