Congress, JD(S) have put Karnataka in turmoil: PM Modi

New Delhi/Channapatna (Karnataka): Blaming “dynastic parties” like the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) for political instability in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on both former allies while reminding Kannadigas that the two Opposition parties pretend to be two separate parties “but are one in their hearts”. Seeking votes for a “double-engine” government, the PM, who addressed three rallies in the poll-bound state, warned that “every vote to the JD(S) would straightaway go to the Congress and bring instability in Karnataka”, and said both parties are “symbols of instability”. The PM also replied to the “poisonous snake” barb hurled at him by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, saying for him “the people of the country are a form of Lord Shiva” and that he “accepts being the snake on the neck of God-like public”, asserting that the people of Karnataka will give them a “befitting answer” on May 10.

Attacking both the JD(S) and Congress, Mr Modi said that on one hand, the Congress unit in Karnataka is engaged in the service of a family sitting in New Delhi, on the other, the JD(S) is “completely a private limited party of a family”.

Accusing the JD(S) and Congress of being responsible for the political instability in Karnataka and encouraging corruption, the PM claimed that both parties saw Karnataka as an ATM, and they found opportunity in instability.

“The Congress and the JD(S) are responsible for the instability. They pretend to be two separate parties but are one in their hearts. They are together in Delhi. They assist each other in Parliament,” he said at a public meeting at Channapatna in Ramanagara district, which is a JD(S) bastion.

JD(S) second-in-command H.D. Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, had won the 2018 Assembly election from this constituency by defeating BJP candidate C.P. Yogeeshwara. Mr Kumaraswamy is again seeking re-election.

“Both are dynastic parties and encourage corruption,” Mr Modi said, adding that for a very long time, Karnataka had seen the drama of unstable governments, which provide a chance to loot. “There is always a fight to loot and (the focus is) not development”, said the PM.

Hitting out at the JD(S), he said the party had openly declared that if it got 15-20 seats in the elections to the 224-member Assembly, it would be the kingmaker. “This selfish approach may benefit one family but it causes losses to lakhs of families of Karnataka,” the PM said.

He also alleged that every vote to the JD(S) would straightaway go to the Congress and bring instability to Karnataka. “Whenever the Congress and JD(S) come to power, some families thrive but for the BJP, every family of India and Karnataka is the party’s own family,” Mr Modi said.

“When the BJP’s ‘double-engine government’ came to power, bank accounts of three lakh people were opened in Ramanagara. Here, 2.5 lakh families got insurance cover, 50,000 became eligible for the Atal Pension Scheme and 7,000 concrete houses were sanctioned,” he said.

“The Congress is synonymous with betrayal. It has betrayed farmers. The Congress used to employ its energy to create a system that would burden farmers under debt and then used to pretend about loan waiver,” Mr Modi alleged.

In 2008, the Congress declared a “false loan waiver”, the Prime Minister claimed, adding: “This loan waiver was only for those associated with the Congress.”

“When crores of marginal farmers did not have bank accounts, for whom the doors of banks were never opened, how were those marginal farmers benefited when the loan waiver was announced?” Mr Modi asked.

According to him, farmers were forced to borrow money from private lenders in the open market. The benefit of the loan waiver did not reach farmers but “their brothers and relatives (of those belonging to the Congress)”.

The money “reached corrupt people”, Mr Modi said, adding: “The truth is that the loans of not even 10 per cent farmers were waived. This is the track record of the Congress.”

The PM said that Congress leaders were “roaming around with fake guarantee schemes”, but the reality was that their every guarantee and promise was a “bundle of lies”.