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Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday appealed to citizens to think before voting, as the present Lok Sabha elections were significant.
Addressing an election rally at the Maharaja’s College grounds, the same venue where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi had addressed an election rally on Tuesday, she said the Congress was committed to secular values that had unified the country. “The Congress has ruled the country on principles of dharma,” she said, appealing to voters to remember this before casting their vote on April 17.
Gandhi thanked the people of the state for having reposed their faith in the Congress in the Assembly elections and expressed confidence they would do so once again now.
In her brief speech, she spoke about the achievements of the Congress government at the Centre in fields like education, employment and agricultural production. Its efforts had given a boost to agricultural production and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act had benefited the rural people, she said.
Stating the programmes and schemes, launched while in office during these two terms at the Centre had brought about economic expansion, benefiting all sections of the people, the Congress president said, “Therefore, it is for you to think and choose to what principles you should vote for.”
Earlier, both chief minister Siddaramaiah and party's Mysore Lok Sabha candidate AH Viswanath referred to the speech of Modi in Mysore yesterday, wherein he had said corruption was in the DNA of the Congress. Strongly rebutting his charge, they alleged that the BJP leader was misleading people with his "false' utterances.
In his hard hitting reply, Siddaramaiah said, "Modi should be ashamed of making such false allegation against the Congress while visiting Karnataka. He should know that corruption had reached its zenith when the BJP was in power under BS Yeddyurappa leadership. The chief minister himself was in jail for 24 days. Thirteen of his ministers had to quit on charges of corruption, rape and misbehaviour. Is Modi not aware of this," he asked.
"He should ask Yeddyurappa, Ananthakumar, Katta Subramanya Naidu, Ishwarappa and others to know what they have done while in office. Corruption took birth along with Yeddyurappa and the BJP," Siddaramaiah charged, alleging the Reddy brothers, Sriramulu, and Yeddyurappa had "looted over Rs 1 lakh crore," "Karunakara Reddy is still in jail and he may not come out at all," he said.
Explaining his achievements in the last few months, Siddaramaiah said none of those programmes had been implemented in Gujarat in the last 10 years and yet Modi and the BJP were harping on building Ram temple in Ayodhya. "This would lead to bloodshed and communal disturbances," Siddaramaiah cautioned.
