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Bangalore News

Congress and the BJP leaders trade charges as campaigning for assembly polls comes to an end

Covai Post Network

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Bangalore : Curtains came down on high-decibel, highly charged campaigning for the May 12 Karnataka assembly elections on Thursday evening with the two rivals – ruling Congress and opposition BJP – making last ditch effort at wooing the electorate. From Thursday evening, no campaigning is possible ahead of May 12 voting for the general elections.

The last day of campaigning saw the big guns of the two parties – AICC president Rahul Gandhi and BJP president Amit Shah – pulling out all stops to woo the masses as also to deride the political opponent. While each of the two claim victories, ground situation indicates a hung assembly with the Congress enjoying a slight edge.

But it is an election that is too close to call and veteran scribes here have described the polls as their toughest yet so far to predict.

First to kick off on final day polling was Rahul Gandhi, who addressed a lengthy press conference, where in he answered questions from the media persons on the campaigning and politics prevailing in the country today.

A smiling and calm Rahul Gandhi blasted the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the kind of language he used, the depths to which he sunk the discourse and attacked the top BJP leader and prime minister with corruption charges.

The Prime Minister paid Rs 1500 crore for each Rafale fighter plane when the UPA government had bargained just to pay Rs700 crore for one plane. But the Prime Minister who claims fight against corruption went ahead with inflated price of the fighter plane and alleged that there was corruption in the deal. Besides, said the Congress chief, the government was not passing on the benefit of lower global crude oil price onto the customers in India.

ALSO READ : Auto drivers’ conference in Coimbatore from May 11

The huge saving on account of lower crude oil prices at $ 70 per barrel as against $140 per barrel during the UPA regime, Rahul Gandhi alleged, was distributed among the friends of the prime minister. The fat cats have got their loans waved off, Rahul Gandhi alleged.

The Congress leader, sounding confident of a victory in the assembly polls and forming the government again in Karnataka, also charged the prime minister with making personal attacks against Congress leaders, including “myself”.

This election is not about the prime minister or me. This election is about Karnataka and the people issues here and not all the things that the Prime Minister Modi kept talking about. It is about jobs, which Bangalore created because of the city’s specialisation as the start up centre and entrepreneurial hub and a successful start up centre in the country.

The Prime Minister will not want to discuss and debate on issues that matter to the people of Karnataka but was only interested in diverting the issue, Rahul Gandhi said.

The Rahul Gandhi attack was promptly repelled by top BJP leaders, who held a road show in Badami from where chief minister S Siddaramaiah is contesting from. Union minister Piyush Goel dismissed Rahul Gandhi’s press conference as a tutored one and of no significance. The Congress now knows that it is getting totally beaten and its desperation is showing, Piyush Goyal said.

The Congress has become desperate and these are the ploys of a man who has lost it all, Goyel said adding even the chief minister is facing the heat in Badami.

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