Siddaramaiah blows bugle for rural progress in ZP elections

Mysuru: With son Rakesh Siddaramaiah in tow, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah criss-crossed his home constituency, Varuna, focusing on the role played by the ruling Congress in strengthening rural local bodies as he drummed up support for candidates in the run-up to phase-II of taluk and zilla panchayat polls on Wednesday.

Mr Siddaramaiah campaigned at Tagadur in Nanjangud taluk and Meglapura in Mysuru taluk, both in Varuna constituency, often recalling Mahatma Gandhi’s quote that “India lives in villages” and how his government was catalyzing development in rural areas in order to provide all amenities available to people living in rural areas. Highlighting schemes launched by the state government across all sectors, he queried how leaders of Opposition parties could accuse the administration of remaining inactive over the last two-and-half years. “After two-and-half years, our party will return to power again in the state for sure. Leaders of BJP are day dreaming that they will come to power. And leaders of JD (S) can never come to power as their strength is only limited to Mangaluru, Tumakuru, Hassan and Bengaluru rural,” Mr Siddaramaiah added.

The Chief Minister said the Congress government not only strengthened rural local bodies but also provided equal opportunities for women, minorities and backward communities. With the help of an amendment to Panchayat Raj Act, the chairperson of every zilla panchayat would be given the rank of a minister to oversee development of the district. Therefore, the demand for tickets has increased as also the unrest within the party. Any one can ask for ticket, but once the party selects the candidate, they should forget minor differences and strive for victory of party candidates,” he added.

He criticized the Union government for slashing funds meant for schemes such as Integrated Child Protection Scheme, Sarvashikshana Abhiyan, mid day meals and others, forcing the state government to fork out Rs 4,689 crores, which could have been spent for other welfare programmes. “For drought relief while we sought Rs 3840 crores, we only got Rs 1540 crores from the Union government,” he added.

HDK, Ramya in war of   words over watch
Former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy’s reported statement during the ZP campaign in mandya district that the district has seen more than 100 suicides after Congress came to power and it could be because former MP Ms Ramya stepped into Mandya district, has created a storm.

The JD(S) state president had even reportedly asked people not to be carried away by the ‘colourful antics’ of the film actor.

Reacting to this, Ms Ramya, who participated in the campaign in Mandya, said, “His wife Radhika is an actress and his wife Anitha Kumaraswamy is a producer, his son Nikil is also acting. Still, he does not  respect artistes. He wears a gold wristwatch in his house, owns expensive cars like Audi, Hummer and BMW and he speaks about the expensive wristwatch of others,” she quipped.

To this, Mr Kumaraswamy retorted, “When did she see me wearing a gold wristwatch? Why should she make references to my personal life?”