With just days to go for the crucial assembly elections in Karnataka, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday held her first rally in three years as she attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for spreading “hatred”, saying the incumbent government was not capable of bringing development to the southern state.
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Gandhi’s rally in Hubbali on Saturday was her first since she spoke at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi in December 2019.
Gandhi referenced the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a footmarch through India led by Congress leader and her son Rahul Gandhi, and said it perturbed the BJP. “Bharat Jodo Yatra was done against people who do only one thing, which is spreading hatred. Such people can never bring any development in Karnataka,” she said.
The senior Congress leader said the incumbent BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Centre and Basavraj Bommai in the state, did not believe in the principles of democracy, and refused to answer questions. “They (BJP) think democratic principles are in their pockets. Does democracy work like this?” she said.
Days after BJP leaders including party president JP Nadda said that Karnataka must vote for the BJP for a “double engine government”, and to ensure that Prime Minister Modi’s blessings were with the state, Gandhi called this a threat.
“Without getting rid of the kind of atmosphere created by the loot, lies, arrogance and hatred of the BJP government, neither Karnataka can progress nor the country can progress. These people give threats openly like if BJP loses elections then Karnataka will not get PM Modi’s blessings,” Gandhi said. “I want to tell them that Karnataka’s people are not so cowardly and greedy but trust their hard work. According to them (BJP), people’s future is dependent on the blessings of the government.”
This was Gandhi’s first foray into the crucial assembly elections campaign, which has seen Rahul Gandhi hold at least 17 rallies and roadshows, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra 19.
The former Congress chief has previously contested an election in Karnataka, defeating the late Sushma Swaraj in Bellari in the 1999 Lok Sabha polls. Gandhi had fought from both Bellari and Amethi (in Uttar Pradesh), and chose to represent the latter.
Polling for the 224-member Karnataka assembly will be held on May 10 and counting of votes on May 13.
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In the rally where Gandhi was flanked on stage by Rahul Gandhi, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former Karnataka chief minister Jagdish Shettar, who recently jumped ship to the Congress from the BJP, she said, “It is everyone’s responsibility to strengthen our voice against this (BJP) government’s ‘dark rule’.”
The party has fielded Shettar, a six-time legislator and Lingayat leader, from Hubli-Dharwad Central constituency, from where he had won the previous assembly polls in 2018 on a BJP ticket.
