AICC general secretary RS Surjewala on Friday said the weeklong padayatra of the BJP-JDS combine from Bengaluru to Mysuru was not targeted at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, but at the five popular guarantee-schemes, which the Opposition wanted to stop.
The government was transferring Rs 58,000 crore every year to the bank accounts of about five crore Kannadigas, and the BJP-JDS wanted to abolish the Congress guarantees at any cost, the AICC leader said, speaking at the Congress party’s rally in Mysuru.
The ruling party’s rally came as a counter to the yatra of the NDA partners, which began in Bengaluru on August 3 and will conclude in Mysuru on Saturday.
The Congress padayatra, Surjewala said, had failed, and the attempts by the NDA to destabilise the Congress regime and stop the guarantees would also fail, similarly.
Siddaramaiah said the BJP was conspiring against his government and using the Raj Bhavan to achieve this goal. Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, and BJP leaders BS Yediyurappa, State BJP president BY Vijayendra, and Opposition leader R Ashoka were all part of this conspiracy, he added.
RECALL GOVERNOR
The event witnessed demands from a senior minister for the recall of Governor Thawarchand Gehlot for issuing show-cause notice to the CM seeking his explanation in the site allotment scam. The notice asked the CM to explain why he should not accept a request for grant of permission for his (CM’s) prosecution for the ‘unlawful’ allotment of plots in Mysuru.
Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, speaking at the rally, urged the Centre to recall the Governor for acting in a partisan manner against the CM.
The BJP, he added, was misusing the Governor and Raj Bhavan to topple a democratically elected government. The BJP and the Centre would face consequences for their actions in threatening the stability of the government, he added.
