From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Oct 27: In what is apparently a sign of nervousness over Congress candidate Srinivas Mane gaining acceptance in the Hangal assembly by-election campaign against BJP candidate Shivaraj Sajjanar, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday lashed out at Congress party for misleading voters on caste issues or by wooing minorities and asked the voters to teach a lesson to the opposition party for its divisive politics.

Addressing a series of the public meetings to campaign for the BJP candidate on Wednesday in different parts of Hangal constituency, the Chief Minister accused the Congress party of destroying social harmony by creating a rift among castes and pandering to the minorities as its votebanks.

Bommai claimed that a BJP wave was sweeping the constituency and charged that the Congress leaders were trying to break the BJP wave by distributing money. He urged the BJP workers to protect the electoral booths in the constituency.

The Chief Minister said the late BJP leader C M Udasai had served the constituency honestly for the past 38 years and worked for its development. The voters should continue the legacy by voting for party candidate Shivaraj Sajjanar, he said pointing out that Udasi’s son and Lok Sabha member Shivakumar Udasi was campaigning for the party candidate.

Targeting the Congress party in all his meetings, the Chief Minister said the Congress party is a party of empty slogans and asked whether poverty had been eradicated despite Indira Gandhi’s Garibi Hatao slogan and wanted to know what has happened to the 20-point programme. Even before former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah launched the Anna Bhagya scheme, rice was being supplied and the public distribution system is being implemented for the last 50 years.

He accused the Congress party for launching Shadi Bhagya for just one community and wondered whether it was social justice, and charged that minority communities have been cheated by the Congress.

The Chief Minister said the BJP governments at the Centre and in the States have administered 100 crore doses of vaccine against the Covid pandemic and praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the feat.

He asked the minority communities not allow them to be taken for granted and wanted them to be vigilant about their rights and not to be fooled by empty slogans of the Congress party.

The BJP, on the other hand, the Chief Minister said was working for the development of all sections of society, especially backward classes and other vulnerable sections as also minorities.