Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday continued his attacks on the Congress ahead of assembly elections in Karnataka, alleging the party was slowing down the pace of development wherever they were in power.

Addressing a rally in Mysuru, about 125km from Bengaluru, Modi said his government at the centre was making its best attempts to implement schemes like modernizing the railways and housing for all, which would not just bring better business and jobs but ensure a roof over at least 40 million homeless families in the country.

“Do you want a commission government or a mission one?" Modi said, referring to his allegation made in Bengaluru on 4 February that the Karnataka government, led by chief minister Siddaramaiah, would approve projects only if it got to keep 10% of the project cost as commission.

Modi’s rally in Mysuru comes barely a week after Congress president Rahul Gandhi toured six districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region to mobilize support for the party in the assembly elections, scheduled to be held later this year.

All three major political parties of the state—Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular)—have kick-started their respective election campaigns in what is turning out to be one of the most keenly contested elections, which is likely to have an impact on national-level politics when the country heads to Lok Sabha polls next year.

The BJP has so far been unsuccessful in making inroads in Mysuru, the home district of Siddaramaiah and considered a Congress bastion.

Apart from his public rally, Modi flagged off the Palace Queen Humsafar Express between Mysuru and Udaipur, inaugurated the electrification of a railway line between Mysuru and Bengaluru and visited the Mahamastakabhisheka, a ceremony that is performed once in 12 years to the 57-feet tall monolithic statue of Lord Bahubali in Shravanabelagola.

Modi said that nearly Rs9 trillion worth of projects, announced by the Congress in Parliament over the decades it was in power, were all on paper and nowhere to be seen.

The prime minister cited development work initiated by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to allege inefficiency on the part of the Congress.

Modi announced that a 117-km stretch of the Mysuru-Bengaluru road would be converted into a six-lane national highway at a cost of over Rs6,400 crore. He also announced the setting up of a new satellite railway station for Mysuru, to be built with a budget of Rs800 crore. He said that the new railway lines and roads would bring in more tourists into the city.

In a veiled attack against Siddaramaiah, he said that the results of the chief minister’s misdeeds would be borne by the people of Mysuru. Siddaramaiah’s home constituency, Varuna, is part of Mysuru district.

He said a BJP government in the state would work on “mission mode" to help Karnataka realise its potential and take it to new heights.

He attacked the Congress over a diary that was found by income tax department officials when they raided the home of a senior leader from the party in March 2016. The diary allegedly contained information about kickbacks paid to several senior Congress leaders.

BJP’s central leadership, which has taken control of the election campaign, is leaving little to chance to return to power in Karnataka where the party’s strength was reduced to 40 seats in 2013 from 110 in 2008. BJP’s five-year rule in Karnataka—the first time it had formed a government in South India—ended disastrously after a series of corruption allegations, including the multi-billion dollar illegal mining scandal came out against the top leadership of the party.

Of the 11 assembly seats in Mysuru, the Congress bagged eight and the JD(S) three in the 2013 elections. However, Mysuru, which has a large population of the dominant Vokkaliga caste, scheduled castes and backward classes, voted for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

Although the BJP and other political parties have been holding events, the campaign will kick into high gear after the election dates are announced. BJP national president Amit Shah will be in the Dakshina Kannada district on Tuesday. Gandhi will start the second of his four scheduled tours of Karnataka from 24 February. Modi will return on 27 February for a farmers rally in Davangere district.

Monday’s visit to Mysuru was Modi’s first to the southern part of the state which has been celebrating the recent Supreme Court verdict on the Cauvery river water sharing dispute, which gives drought-hit Karnataka a better deal than its southern neighbour Tamil Nadu.

The SC verdict on Friday gave Siddaramaiah, whose popularity in any case has been soaring in recent months, an unexpected boost over his opposition rivals.

The state unit of the BJP, led by its chief ministerial candidate B.S.Yeddyurappa, is banking on the party’s performance at the centre to seek support in the state, turning Karnataka into the battlefield where national issues are being debated in a state election.

Both Modi and Gandhi have used their campaigns in Karnataka to attack each other in matters of national policies like the implementation of goods and services tax (GST), demonetisation and national security. Alongside, Siddaramaiah has made Modi his primary target, bypassing Yeddyurappa.

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