A video of a farmer kissing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture on a bus in poll-bound Karnataka has gone viral. The farmer gets emotional as he speaks to the picture of the prime minister in this viral video.
“Earlier I was getting ₹1,000, and you decided to give 500 more. You said you wanted our homes to be green. You said you would give ₹5 lakh for our health. I bow down to your feet, you will win over the world”, the farmer says before kissing the picture of Modi.
The Election Commission on Wednesday announced the dates for election to the 224-member Karnataka assembly. Voting will be held in a single phase on May 10 and counting of votes will take place on May 13.
The Bharatiya Janata Party is banking on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s development pitch in the southern state. He has been calling for continuing the ‘double engine’ government in the sole saffron bastion in the South. The BJP currently has 119 seats, followed by the Congress with 75. The JD (S) has 28 MLAs, while two seats are vacant.
Sanjay Kumar, a noted political scientist, said the BJP faces a challenge from the Congress and the electoral contest is in no way going to be one-sided. ““There is some anti-incumbency mood in the state against the ruling BJP as there have been charges of corruption. But still what goes in the favour of the BJP is the divided opposition,” he told PTI.
The Congress is hoping to encash on the anti-incumbency faced by the BJP. The grand old party is said to be fighting polls on the strength of local leadership and has made corruption the central theme of its campaigning. The polls are a prestige battle for party chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Kalaburgi district of the state.
It is being keenly watched how former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) performs in the polls. The party is looking to emerge as a kingmaker if it manages to win 30-35 seats in case of a hung assembly.
