Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Mar 15: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday March 15 said the Karnataka Congress
wants party president Rahul Gandhi to consider contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections from the state.
In a tweet, the former CM called Rahul Gandhi the 'next Prime Minister of India', while recalling that his grandmother Indira Gandhi and mother Sonia Gandhi had contested the Lok Sabha polls from Karnataka in the past.
"Karnataka has always supported & encouraged @INCIndia leaders. It has been proved in case of Smt. Indira ji & Smt. Sonia ji. We also want our next Prime Minister of India Shri. @RahulGandhi to contest from Karnataka & herald new developmental paradigm. #RaGaFromKarnataka," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
While Indira Gandhi had scripted her political comeback from Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka by winning the Lok Sabha bypolls in 1978, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi had contested and won from Ballari in 1999, trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Sushma Swaraj.
Interestingly, the Congress has ceded the Chikkamagaluru seat to its alliance partner Janata Dal (Secular) this time, while Ballari remains with the grand old party.
Siddaramaiah's tweet has come amid reports about the pressure within the Congress for Rahul Gandhi to contest from one of the seats in south India.
The Congress had, earlier this month, announced that the party chief would contest from Amethi and Sonia Gandhi from Rae Bareli, both traditional strongholds of the party in Uttar Pradesh.
In a retort to Siddaramaiah's tweet, BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekar said that Rahul Gandhi should indeed contest from Karnataka as he may not win from Amethi, and also because people of the state would want to question him on the 'loot' and 'exploitation' committed by his party in Karnataka in the last six years.
BJP leaders pocketed money collected for building Ram temple: CM Siddaramaiah
Mysuru, Mar 15: "BJP had collected money and other materials from across the nation to build the Ram Mandir at Ayodha. But neither the funds nor the materials have reached Ayodhya. The money instead has gone into the pockets of BJP leaders. They have also not given any account of the money collected from the people," said Siddaramaiah here on Friday March 15.
"We do not oppose Ram temple. But we oppose politicising the issue for electoral gains. Since 1992, every election they promised to build Ram temple and fooled the people. In reality, BJP is not serious about building Ram temple," Siddaramaiah tweeted.
He also tweeted that to use the surgical strikes for political mileage was equal to "betraying the nation, and that is what BJP has been doing". "If we calculate in that fashion, then during the regime of the Congress party, there were 11 to 12 surgical strikes.
"Has BJP even sought votes in the name of development or issue of farmers? They play politics of emotions. They have not done any development during their term, so they are doing politics by using the surgical strike," he told a gathering earlier in the day.
"BJP is projecting that they have benefitted from the surgical strike. So does that mean before the surgical strike Modi wave had fallen?" questioned Siddaramaiah.
With PTI Inputs