JD(S) To Fight LS Polls From Hassan, Mandya And Kolar In Karnataka, Kumaraswamy Announces

State president of Janata Dal Secular and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday stated that his party which is into alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has got parliamentary seats in its strongholds of Hassan, Mandya and Kolar, a reserved seat for Scheduled Castes, to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha elections out of 28 seats in Karnataka, in the seat sharing between the two parties.

“I could have demanded for more seats from the BJP but owing to financial constraints had to settle down for three seats,” he said at the party workers meet in Hassan.  Responding to the accusations of 'injustice' to Karanataka in allocation of funds from the Finance Commission levelled by the Congress led state government against the Bharatiya Janata Party led Central Government, Kumaraswamy stated that “It’s true that Karnataka has been neglected by various governments which ruled the country and not by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led central government alone.”

Kumaraswamy stated that the Finance Commission started its functioning from 1952 onwards and it has some parameters to decide on fund allocations to the State and Karnataka has been getting raw deal from every Government that ruled at the centre barring the 10-month rule of his father and former Prime Minister H.D. Devegowda from 1996 to 1997 at the Centre.

Referring to his decision to waive off farm loans when he was the Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy said that “I did not wait for funds from the Centre to waive farm loans nor staged protests against the Centre at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.”

Criticising the State Government, Kumaraswamy said the Congress led government has announced Rs 52,000 crore for its 5-guarantee programmes such as free travel for women in State run buses, Rs 2,000 cash benefit scheme for female head of a family, free power up to Rs 200 units a month, unemployment allowances for youths and additional 5 kg distribution of rice.

In doing so, he said, the State Government has borrowed about Rs 1.05 lakh crore after coming to power for close to a year and this loan amount has been misused by the State Government on placing advertisements in newspapers on the front pages.

Kumaraswamy stated that Rs 2,000 cash benefit scheme for the female head of a family is not enough and the amount fails to address either the school expenses of her children or the medical expenses of her family. In his accusations against the State Government, he alleged that Karnataka being the highest tax-payer State of the country and the tax collected from the people has been “looted.”