india

Updated: May 01, 2018 14:41 IST

Karnataka’s voters have to choose between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that works for progress and the Congress that has only the “name” of its top leadership, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.

Modi, in his first formal election rally for the BJP in Karnataka, thanked labourers and workers for achieving his government’s target of bringing electricity to all villages and attacked the Congress party for allegedly disregarding working class people.

“I want to dedicate the historical achievement of the country on 28 April, when all villages in India were electrified, to the workers and labourers of the country on this Labour Day,” he said in Santhemarahalli in Chamarajanagara district.

“The Congress president is namdaar (dynast) so how does he know about the efforts of kaamdaars (people who work)” he said, referring to his rival Rahul Gandhi.

“Perhaps due to over excitement, the newly elected Congress president forgets decency. He did not even bother to congratulate the hardworking ‘Mazdoors’ due to whom India’s villages are getting electricity.”

Modi said Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi had failed in their promise of electrifying the entire country by 2009 when the Congress governed the country, but now were questioning his government’s achievement.

Modi criticised Congress leader and Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah for fighting elections from two seats and his son from another.

“There is 2+1 formula which is being practised in Karnataka, it’s a version of the Congress’s family politics in Karnataka. Kabhi kabhi jaagnewale aur zadatar soonewale yahan ke CM ka yeh political innovation hai (This is the initiative of the chief minister, who is mostly sleeping).”

“In Karnataka there is no law, there is no order. The Lokayukta is not safe, how can the common people be safe,” he said, referring to the attack on the state’s anti-corruption watchdog on March 7.

Modi will address 15 rallies in five days across Karnataka, which votes for its 224-seat assembly on May 12, underlining the state’s importance for his government.

Two opinion polls released on April 23 predicted a hung assembly in the elections, with both suggesting that a new government in the state would have to be formed in coalition with the Janata Dal (Secular).