Accusing the Congress government in the State of stalling all development works in the name of implementing the five guarantees, chairman of Janata Dal(S) Core Committee G.T. Deve Gowda has said that the guarantees [of the Congress government] have eclipsed development works.
Addressing a press conference in Dharwad on Friday, Mr. Deve Gowda accused the Siddaramaiah-led government of ignoring the welfare of 6.5 crore people in the State.
Even after five months since the formation of the government, the Congress has failed to mobilise funds for fulfilling the guarantees, he said.
Mr. Deve Gowda said that the government has neither fulfilled the guarantees nor has it taken up development works. And, it [Congress governance] has been nothing but misrule. Although the government has declared 195 taluks as drought-hit, none of the 135 Congress MLAs has bothered to visit the taluks to assess the ground reality, he added.
After having suffered heavy losses during kharif, now farmers are facing the threat of drought during rabi also. The farmers have been unable to save their crops by supplying water through irrigation as power supply has gone awry, he said.
Mr. Deve Gowda also took a dig at Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and said that instead of ensuring power supply by buying power, he is pointing his finger at the Centre.
He also said that the farmers have now been deprived of the scheme where they used to get ₹2,000 once in three months. “The State government’s sixth ‘bhagya’ is ‘farmers suicide’,” he remarked.
Defending his party’s alliance with the BJP, he said that the objective is to expose the misrule of the Congress. Preparations for the Lok Sabha elections will begin from Kalyan Karnataka region and together, the alliance will sweep all the 28 seats in the State, he said.
Replying to another query, Mr. Deve Gowda revealed that during the last Lok Sabha elections, he supported BJP candidate Pratap Simha in the Mysuru-Kodagu constituency as the Congress leaders, including N. Cheluvarayaswamy, did not support Janata Dal(S) candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy in Mandya, while another Congress leader K. Rajanna backstabbed Janata Dal(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda in Tumakuru.
Janata Dal(S) city unit president Gururaj Hunsashimarad, rural unit president B.B. Gangadharmath and others were present.
