War of words on New Year Eve a sign of stormy polls

NT Correspondent

Voting for JD(S) is like casting ballot for Cong: Amit Shah

Bengaluru: Urging party workers to ensure that BJP forms a government with two-thirds majority in Karnataka, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday asserted that the party will go alone in the 2023 assembly polls, and said it will be a direct contest as voting for JD(S) is like casting the ballot for Congress.

He also urged people to decide whether they are standing with a party of patriots, referring to the BJP, or with "tukde tukde gang" under the leadership of Congress. "There are clearly two sides and it is a straight fight this time. Journalists say there is a triangular fight. I said no, it is a straight fight, because voting for JD(S) means voting for Congress. So, is it a straight fight or not?" Shah asked.

Accusing the JD(S) of spreading rumours claiming that BJP will tie up with them, while addressing party workers here, he said: "I have come to tell the workers and the people of Karnataka that we will not go with any party. We will fight alone and form the government on our own."

We built Ram Mandir: Shah

Addressing BJP workers at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru, Amit Shah said, "BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi are constructing a Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. Along with Ayodhya, Kashi Viswanath, Somnath, Kedarnath and Badrinath are being developed."

Shah destroying everything, alleges Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: The war of words between state Congress bigwigs, Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar, and Union Home Minister Amit Shah continued on Saturday as the former accused the PM Modi and Shah duo of “destroying everything.”

The barrage comes a day after Siddaramaiah branded Shah a “political merchant who has kept the CM’s post on sale for Rs 2,000 crore.” The LoP was responding to Shah’s jibe that Congress was corrupt. The Home Minister, who is on a trip to Karnataka, continued his tirade on Saturday, eliciting even more bile from the Congress.

“Whatever they cast their eyes on and wherever they set their feet, everything is destroyed. Amit Shah and Modi are working day and night to prepare a crown of lies and thorns to place on the heads of Kannadigas,” Siddaramaiah said.

“The Modi government should own up the sin of killing people for want of oxygen during Corona. The BJP government should accept the ignominy of indulging in widespread corruption and commission gathering in the name of Corona,” he added.

Siddaramaiah also slammed Amit Shah for his comments on Karnataka’s milk production, claiming it would harm the sector. It got even uglier as the former chief minister branded “Modi and Shah the ambassadors of Ambani and Adani”, asking Kannadigas to shun the BJP in the upcoming Assembly polls.

BJP doesn’t hold patents on Ram, Hinduism: Uma

Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti has said her party does not “hold patents” on Lord Ram, Hanuman or the Hindu religion and anybody can have faith in them, but “our faith is beyond political gains”.

In a statement issued here on Friday, the former Madhya Pradesh chief minister also said it was not the BJP which inculcated in her the faith in Ram, the Tricolour, Ganga and cow, but it was "already within" her. "The BJP does not hold patents on Ram and Hanuman or the Hindu religion. Anyone can have faith in them. The difference is that our faith is beyond political gains," she said.

On her demand for a ban on liquor in the state, she said she has drawn a line that she will do what the BJP decides. Bharti also questioned the purpose of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra.

"But where is Bharat breaking? We (the BJP-led NDA government) have abrogated Article 370 (to end the special status of Jammu and Kashmir). What was breaking the country was Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). Rahul Gandhi should take this yatra to PoK," she said. She also claimed that the Congress will be decimated in the 2023 Madhya Pradesh Assembly polls. —PTI