BJP using Shah, Modi to cover up failures: Shivakumar

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar on Sunday claimed that Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to the state signaled that the BJP was trying to use Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cult to paper over the failures of the State government.

Shah has launched diatribes against Congress and JD(S), eliciting equally unpleasant retorts. The Home Minister had claimed that a vote for JD(S) was a vote for the Congress.

This had prompted Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly Siddaramaiah had shot back and called Shah “a political merchant who had kept the post of the chief minister on sale for Rs2,000 crore”, referring to the allegation made by BJP MLA Basangouda Patil Yathnal.

“Amit Shah toured that state for a couple of days and admitted that the administration in the state is not right. That no one is ready to take responsibility for leadership of the BJP in the state. He has also accepted that it is not possible to win the elections with the current leadership. He has suggested that they will fight the (Assembly) elections under the leadership of the Prime Minister. I congratulate him for this,” Shivakumar said.

“Congress party will fight elections under the collective leadership of many including Mallikarjun Kharge, DK Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah, Parameshwara, HK Patil, MB Patil and BK Hariprasad, among others. He (Shah) has put forward the name of the Prime Minister because they know they cannot defeat our collective leadership,” he said, adding that former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and current chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had failed to deliver on their promises.

Shivakumar echoed Siddaramaiah’s sentiment that Shah’s suggestion of merging Amul and Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) was unfavourable, adding that such a decision was a state subject and that it was imprudent for the Union Home Minister to make such a statement.

Earlier in the day, All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Mallikarjun Kharge had called on the KPCC president at the latter’s residence in Bengaluru.