Karnataka Congress uses Amarnath Yatra attack to pull BJP down

BENGALURU: The political theatre in poll-bound Karnataka has become more intense after the attack on Amarnath yatris in Anantnag, with the Congress having one more reason to show that the BJP governance is a failure.

The Congress party has said the saffron party has failed both in the Centre as well as in Jammu & Kashmir, where it is in alliance with the ruling PDP. Karnataka is due for polls in April-May 2018. The ruling Congress in the state is engaged in an intense battle with the BJP, which is pulling out all stops to wrest it as part of their national president Amit Shah's `Congress-mukt Bharat' plank.

The state government is currently being criticised over the murder of an RSS activist Sharath Madiwala in Bantwal near Mangaluru four days ago. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has pulled up the police in response, but said the rise in communalisation and related incidents in the region had come about as it had become the Sangh Parivar's 'Hindutva laboratory'.

BJP leaders have retaliated in force, and his social media pages are full of attacks from BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders.

BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa tweeted: "Incompetence and mindless appeasement politics of @CMofKarnataka and Congress has made the most peaceful state #Burning Karnataka."

The Amarnath incident has now given the Congress a chance to change the narrative and instead, showcase BJP's bad governance.

Congress's state working state working president Dinesh Gundu Rao tweeted: "Horrifying..insane..inhuman..#Kashmir is spiralling out of control ..Hopeful to .hopelessness in last 3 years."

R Roshan Baig, one of Siddaramaiah's senior ministers, issued a press statement demanding President's rule in J&K. "The Amarnath incident does not have a direct impact on Karnataka, but now, the Congress can point fingers and say how incompetent the BJP has been in tackling the situation there. It does reduce the attack they are under over the Bantwal incident," a political observer, requesting anonymity, told ET.