From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Apr 27: Even as the election fever is rising in Karnataka with political parties indulging in war of words, senior Congress leaders and former Union Ministers Rajeev Shukla, Deepa Dasmunsi, and Pradeep Jain have accused the Narendra Modi regime of "looting" Rs 10,00,000 crore from the common people of in last four years.

While Congress President Rahul Gandhi had dubbed the hastily implemented Goods and Services Tax (GST) as "Gabbar Singh Tax" by alluding to the dacoit Gabbar in the bollywood blockbuster 'Sholay', the Congress leaders have now coined a new term for the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as "Gas, Diesel and Petrol."

The common people and salaried classes as also farmers have borne the brunt of the Modi regime’s GDP taxation in the last four years, they alleged.

Addressing reporters at the Congress party office in Bengaluru on Friday while party president Rahul Gandhi released the KPCC poll manifesto in Mangaluru, the Congress leaders alleged that fuel prices have been burning a big hole in the budgets of common people, farmers and the middle classes.

The Modi government’s surreptitious move to raise prices of petrol on a daily basis has burnt holes in the pockets of common man, as today’s price of petrol in Bengaluru was a high of Rs 75.86 per litre.

Fuel prices in BJP ruled states such as Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were higher compared to Congress ruled Karnataka, they calimed.

Decline in international crude prices in the post-2014 period, helped the Modi government to earn a windfall of Rs 9.95 lakh crore by levying various central taxes on petrol and diesel.

Instead of passing on the benefit to ordinary Indians, the Modi government brutally taxed fuel commodities and prices were up by 211 % in the last four years, they claimed.

The Congress continued to demand that petrol and diesel must be brought under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) ambit.

"Why is the BJP profiteering from the savings of the common people and inflicting unbearable burden on their incomes”, they asked.

"Is this way of ushering in Acche Din to Indians," the Congress leaders asked and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mockery of his own slogan - "Sabka Saath, Sabkaa Vikaas."