People waiting to oust Congress government in Karnataka: Shah

Chitradurga (Karnataka): Dubbing the Karnataka government "corrupt at all levels", BJP President Amit Shah on Wednesday said the state's people are waiting to throw out the ruling Congress in the upcoming assembly elections, due in April.

"The countdown for the exit of the Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has begun, as the people are waiting to throw it out lock, stock and barrel," said Shah at a party's rally in Holakere in the state's central district, about 200km from Bengaluru.

Addressing over 50,000 people at the party's "Nava Karnataka Parivarthana" rally, Shah said the Congress cadres were the only people to be happy with their government and no other one section of society, be it women, farmers or youth -- rural or urban.

"This government deserves to be thrown to the dustbin of history, as corruption is rampant and inefficiency permeates at all levels of governance," asserted Shah.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in the state for the first time after the 2008 assembly election, lost to the Congress in the 2013 poll following a split in its state unit and five years of "misrule" with three chief ministers at the helm.

Listing out various scams of the state government, Shah said the ruling Congress was involved in the Rs 900-crore Malaprabha river project, Rs 100-crore steel bridge project that was abandoned later, Rs 300-crore solar power project and denotification (releasing from government control) of about 1,800 lakes across the state, especially Bengaluru.

Accusing the government of misusing central funds, looting tax-payers' money, farmers and fishermen, Shah said though the Modi government at the Centre had given the southern state Rs 3 lakh-crore over the past 42 months under various schemes, the money did not reach the intended beneficiaries.

"The Modi government has provided Rs 2,19,506 crore to Karnataka under the 14th Finance Commission and Rs 79,000 crore under various schemes since 2014-15. I ask Siddaramaiah to furnish accounts as to what he did with so much money, as it did not reach the poor or its beneficiaries," reiterated Shah.

Blaming the Congress for indulging in minority appeasement and playing votebank politics, the BJP President said the Chief Minister had been indifferent to the killing of 21 workers of his party (BJP) and its parent organisation, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

"More than 20 BJP and RSS activists have been killed in the state. What was their mistake? The state government is not even probing their death. When our party comes to power, whoever responsible for these deaths will be put behind the bars," claimed Shah.

Besides party's state unit chief B.S. Yeddyurappa, central ministers from the state Ananth Kumar and D.V. Sadananda Gowda, Railway Minister Piyush Goel and Union HRD Minister and party's state in-charge Prakash Javdekar and its state leaders Jagadish Shettar, K.S Eshwarappa and A.R. Ashok participated in the rally.