Karnataka elections: Instability, graft will be rife if Congress comes to power, says Amit Shah

New Delhi, April 25

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said if the Congress came to power in Karnataka, dynastic politics would be at an all-time high and it would be “afflicted with riots”.

Addressing an election rally at Terdal in Belagavi district of Karnataka, Shah also said the development of the state would be on the “reverse gear” if the Congress formed the government and asked people to vote for the BJP to bring in “political stability” in the state.

“If the Congress comes to power, dynastic politics will be at an all-time high and Karnataka will be afflicted with riots,” said Shah, who is one of the BJP’s key poll strategists and campaigners.

“If the Congress comes to power by mistake, corruption will be at an all-time high and there will be ‘appeasement’,” said Shah, who is on a two-day tour of Karnataka to hold a series of public meetings, roadshows and review meetings.

The senior BJP leader said the Congress would not benefit anyway from BJP’s two major leaders — former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and former Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi — who recently joined the grand old party.

“The Congress has always insulted the Lingayat community because in its long rule in the state it could give only two Lingayat Chief Ministers – S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil – and both were humiliated and sacked from the party,” he said.

Noting that Congress is a “bankrupt party’, as it is seeking votes on the basis of those leaders, who came from the BJP, Shah said, the Opposition party aligned with the JD-S to unseat then Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.

“After unseating Yediyurappa using the JD-S, you want to move forward with the help of some of our leaders but the people of Karnataka, especially those from ‘Kittur Karnataka’ region in the northern part of the state, will not tolerate it,” he added.