PM Narendra Modi targets Rahul Gandhi in Karnataka rally

Santemaranahalli/Udupi/Chikkodi (Karnataka): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday kicked off his campaign in Karnataka with blistering attacks on Congress president Rahul Gandhi and chief minister Siddaramaiah.

While he raised issues of corruption and dynastic politics to target the Congress leaders during his three rallies, Mr Modi showered praise on JD(S) chief and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who had recently said that he would disown his son H.D. Kumaraswamy if he aligns with the BJP in case of a hung Assembly. Speculation has been rife that the saffron poll managers are in back channel talks with the JD(S) for a post-poll alliance.

Mr Modi dared Mr Gandhi “to speak in any language” for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka without reading out from a piece of paper.

“I dare the Congress president to speak in Hindi, English or the mother tongue of his mother to deliver a speech in Karnataka for 15 minutes, without reading out from a piece of paper, on the achievements of the party government... people of Karnataka will draw their own conclusion,” he said at an election rally in Santemaranahalli.

Mr Modi was responding to Mr Gandhi’s challenge earlier to allow him speak for 15 minutes in Parliament on various issues, including corruption. Mr Gandhi had claimed that his 15-minute speech would be so embarrassing for the Prime Minister that he would not be able to sit through it.

Mr Modi, without naming Mr Gandhi, said, “His speaking for 15 minutes itself is a big thing. And when I hear that I would not be able to sit, I think... Congress president, sir, we cannot sit before you. You are ‘naamdaar’ (dynast), while I am ‘kaamdaar’ (ordinary worker). We have no status to sit in front of you.”

Elections for picking a new 224-member Karnata-ka Assembly will be held on May 12. The results will be declared on May 15.

While slamming Mr Gandhi, the Prime Minister asked him to say the name Visveswaraya five times, apparently taking a swipe at the Congress leader who struggled to pronounce the legendary engineer-scholar's name at a public rally whose video had gone viral. Attacking “dynastic politics” in the Congress, Mr Modi took a dig at chief minister Siddaramaiah for contesting from two seats and fielding his son in another.“I was reading a newspaper a couple of days ago and I found that in Karnataka 2+1 formula is going on. This is nothing but the Kannada version of Congress’ dynastic politics,” he said. Mr Modi was referring to the chief minister's decision to contest from two constituencies “because of the fear of losing”. Hitting back at the Prime Minister for his “2+1 formula” jibe, Mr Siddaramaiah said Mr Modi’s formula to win the Assembly election in the state is “2 Reddys + 1 Yeddy”. He was referring to the BJP fielding brothers of tainted mining baron G. Janrdhan Reddy in the Assembly elections.

The chief minister also pointed out that the Prime Minister himself had contested from two seats during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. On Tuesday, Mr Modi his poll campaign in remote Dalit-Lingayat dominated Santemarahalli in Chamarajnagar district. He followed it up in communally charged Udupi where 50,000 people had gathered in the city centre to hear him. By late evening he had landed in Chikkodi, in Belagavi district, where he referred obliquely to the free pressure cookers distributed by a Congress leader — whom he did not name - to accuse the state ruling party of corruption.

Mr Modi's most mystifying move was to shower praise on Mr Deve Gowda. BJP observers have indicated that the PM's praise of the JD(S) leader is intended to ensure that the JD(S) loses the sizeable Muslim vote and the battle for Karnataka ends up as a straight fight between the Congress and the BJP, with the JD(S) losing both the Vokkaliga and the Muslim vote.

Congress spokesperson Sushmita Dev questioned Prime Minister's remark that Mr Gandhi should speak without a script, saying, “Do you have the integrity to speak, let alone 15 minutes, can you speak for even 15 seconds without lies and misrepresentation?” On the issue of kaamdaar and naamdaar that Mr Modi had raised during his rally, Ms Dev said, “The people of the country are not thinking about who is kaamdaar or naamdaar. Today, the only word that exists in the people’s heart is imaandaar (honest).

The Mahila Congress chief said she wanted to tell the Prime Minister that their fight was not against individual Narendra Modi but Mr Gandhi's challenge to speak for 15 minutes must address the issues related to Nirav Modi, Rafale, Jay Shah and Piyush Goyal.

“His (Modi) statement in Karnataka has proved beyond doubt that he has absolutely no answer whatsoever to these issues,” she claimed.Earlier, the Prime Minister also accused the Karnataka government, which he claimed was steeped in corruption, of thwarting the Centre’s efforts for development and promoting a culture of ease of doing murder, a reference to the killing of over two dozen BJP workers in political violence under the Congress government in Karnataka.

Siddaramaiah fired back at Mr Modi on his ease of doing murder remark. “Crime is not increasing in Karnataka abnormally. PM repeats the lie of increasing crime rate for political purposes. I challenge him for an open debate on a single platform on crime & law & order situation in Karnataka vis-a-viz BJP ruled states,” tweeted Mr Siddaramaiah.

Mr Modi also accused the successive Congress governments at the Centre of allowing a handful of people to loot banks while denying loans to poor. He accused the Congress government of stalling various infrastructure projects of the Centre, saying, “Blocking (atkana), keeping things hanging fire (latkana) and misleading (bhatkana) is their nature.” He promised a Swachh, Sundar and Surakshit Karnataka and  praised former Prime Minister and JD(S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda, further fuelling speculation of a possible BJP-JD(S) alliance after the elections whose results will be declared on May 15.

At Belagavi, Mr Modi said, “Congress cannot live without power. That is why they are spreading lies, dividing people on the grounds of caste.” “I urge people of Karnataka to fulfil Mahatma Gandhi's wish of disbanding the Congress party. Now, its Karnataka's turn and you should grab this opportunity” he added.

Speaking briefly in Kannada, he exhorted the audience to change the government and bring in the BJP. For the first time, Mr Modi also openly reaffirmed B.S. Yeddyurappa as the party’s chief ministerial face, days after the BJP top brass had risked alienating the Lingayat leader by refusing to let the former chief minister's son run for office.

While Mr Modi is scheduled to hold 16 election rallies in Karnataka, Mr Gandhi will undertake the eighth leg of his campaign on May 3-4.