Amit Shah rally brings town to a halt

Hubballi: BJP national president, Amit Shah wrapped up his campaigning in Karnataka on a high note on Thursday with a roadshow that  brought the town of Badami to a grinding halt as thousands of party workers thronged the main street from Basaveshwar Circle to the BJP office.

With Congress leaders like C.M. Ibrahim, S.R. Patil and R.B. Timmapur moving out of the town for campaigning in rural areas following the Income Tax raids on their resorts, it was a BJP show all the way in the constituency which is seeing a high-voltage contest between chief minister Siddaramaiah and BJP leader, B. Sriramulu.

Claiming that the party had received overwhelming response during its campaigning over the last one month in the state , Mr Shah asserted that Mr Sriramulu would defeat the chief minister with a huge margin. In fact, he claimed Mr Siddaramaiah would lose from Chamundeshwari too and the BJP would form the government in the state.

Mr Shah was accompanied by state BJP president, B.S. Yeddyurappa, Union Minister, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Mr Sriramulu as the party made a last ditch attempt to appeal to the Veerashaiva-Lingayats, Valmikis and scheduled caste communities. Speaking to reporters later, Mr Yeddyurappa charged the Congress government with insulting Veerashaiva seer, Hanagal Kumaraswamy by trying to divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayats although they were one and same. “The Veerashaivas will never forgive the chief minister for sowing seeds of casteism to gain political mileage in the Assembly elections. Sriramulu will win from Badami by at least 25,000 votes,” he asserted.