I-T raid tactics will boomerang: Siddaramaiah
While maintaining that he had nothing against I-T raids, he said it was the timing he found questionable.
Mysuru: Making no bones about his anger at the income tax raids on a resort and a hotel in Badami from where he is contesting these elections, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday squarely held Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president, Amit Shah responsible for them.
Accusing both Mr Modi and Mr Shah of misusing the I-T department, he claimed the BJP was trying to scare the Congress as it feared losing the coming Assembly poll. “But these tactics will not help them. Instead they will boomerang on them as people will rebel against such methods,” he warned, speaking to reporters here.
“Mr Narendra Modi, Mr Yeddyurappa and Mr Amit Shah know that the Congress will win. And they know that the people are against them and they cannot come to power. And so they are resorting to such measures out of vengeance. But they cannot succeed. If they think this will help them, they are fools. People of Karnataka have already decided to vote for the Congress. No matter what they do, misuse the Income Tax department or ED , nothing will change,” he asserted.
While maintaining that he had nothing against I-T raids, he said it was the timing he found questionable. “I don’t say income tax raids should not be conducted. But why are they doing it during elections? I strongly condemn this. No government has done this before,” he said.
Pointing out that he himself had stayed at the resort that was raided, he said, “Why should I worry when I have done nothing wrong. Would I leave money there and leave? I heard somebody else occupied my room after I left. Why are they raiding the room where Siddaramaiah stayed? What is their intention? It is very clear, they are doing it out of fear of losing.”
Faux pas: Siddu does a Shah
Sometime ago, BJP president Amit Shah had made a faux pas commenting that his state unit president B.S. Yeddyurappa was the ‘most corrupt chief minister’, whaich went viral on social media with BJP critics, including Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the Leftists, making fun of him.
On Tuesday, just four days before polling day, it was the turn of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to err leaving his party colleagues red-faced. While canvassing for Congress candidate, P.M. Narendra Swamy at Malavalli, Mr Siddaramaiah said, "The concrete road, drainage, drinking water, good houses and everything else came from Narendra Modi" which left voters chanting, "Modi, Modi". Actually, Mr Siddaramaiah intended to attribute the development works to Malavalli Congress candidate Narendra Swamy but instead said Narendra Modi!
Siddaramaiah did not stop there. Asking the audience to listen to him patiently, the CM tapped Mr Swamy on his shoulder and said, “every vote that you give to Narendra Modi will come back to me."
An embarrassed Mr Swamy and Congress workers whispered in his ear, “Narendra Swamy” and the CM corrected himself.
Mr Siddaramaiah is known for making such mistakes. At a functions in a by-election, he remarked, "We have to finish Congress party at any cost," when he should have said BJP.
Participating in a party function organised to pay tribute to late Indira Gandhi on October 31, her death anniversary, he said kept saying late Sonia Gandhi till someone prompted him from the back saying it should be Indira Gandhi.
28,622 voters registered
The number of service voters or those working in the armed forces has increased in the state in the past five years. This time, 28,622 service voters have registered their names across the state of which 14,302 service voters have registered in Belagavi district alone.
Of the 28,622 service voters, 27,988 are male voters and the remaining 634, female voters. After Belagavi, the second highest number of service voters is in Hassan – 1502 voters, Vijayapura – 1293 voters and Kodagu – 977 voters.
This time, instead of sending postal ballot papers to army personnel to enable them to cast votes, the Election Commission has provided them electronically transmitted postal ballot papers. Through this system, ballot papers can be downloaded from computers. This is a foolproof method as no one can misuse the service ballot papers, said Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka after releasing the manual for service voters.
Air Marshal S.K. Ghotia released the video message of Retired Air Marshal K.C. Nanda Cariappa, son of late Field Marshal K.M. Cariappa on the occasion. Senior air force officials were present.