Siddaramaiah synonymous with corruption: Amit Shah

BENGALURU: BJP president Amit Shah took forward his “corruption and minority appeasement” strategy in poll-bound Karnataka by stating that chief minister Siddaramaiah was “synonymous with corruption” and alleging that the state government was protecting the killers of Hindu activists.

Shah addressed vociferous BJP supporters in Siddaramaiah’s hometown of Mysuru on Thursday, and mocked the CM all through his speech. The approximately 15,000-strong crowd turned up at the Maharaja College grounds in Congress-held Chamaraja constituency despite a Karnataka-bandh called by pro-Kannada organisations on the Mahadayi river dispute, where the BJP is on a backfoot in the state.

Sources in the political circles said the Congress did not enforce the bandh and that it was partial in Mysuru. “The bandh did affect the rally, but neither the activists nor the administration stopped the BJP buses,” a police source said.


Shah said Congress had organised the bandh just to stymie his rally, which concludes the 77-day Parivartana tour taken out by BS Yeddyurappa, the BJP state president and the CM face for the state assembly elections due in two months. Shah said, “Congress has not forgotten its Emergency culture.”

The BJP president alleged that Rs 1.36 lakh crore of the Rs 2,10,506 crore that the Centre had allotted to Karnataka, had gone into the pockets of Congressmen. “Did any of this money go into your villages, your homes?” he asked. The crowd roared “No!”

Shah continued: “Congressmen who had single storey houses and rode two-wheelers, now have four-storey houses and foreign cars. Siddaramaiah is corruption, corruption is Siddaramaiah. To list all the information I have of his corruption, it will take a week. I will not be able to go back to Delhi and you will not be able to go home!”

He said over 20 Hindu activists had been killed in Karnataka but Siddaramaiah did not ban the SDPI and PFI and even taken back cases against the killers. “You elect us to power and we will dig out killers of Hindus even if they are hiding in the depths of hell,” he said.