Home Minister Amit Shah trained his guns on the Congress party for its promise to restore the 4 per cent reservation for Muslims that had been scrapped by the BJP government recently.
Mr. Shah, who conducted a roadshow in Gundlupet on Monday, told a gathering of people from atop the campaign vehicle that the Congress party practices the politics of appeasement.
He said the BJP government in the State had removed the 4 per cent quota to Muslims in government employment and admission to higher education institutions while increasing the reservation for Lingayats, Vokkaligas, besides Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Referring to Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D.K. Shivakumar’s assurance to restore the quota for Muslims if the Congress is voted to power, Mr. Shah asked the Congress whose reservation the party will reduce in the process. “If you want to bring back Muslim reservation, whose quota will you reduce? Vokkaligas, Lingayats, SC or ST?”, he asked.
He said the ensuing elections was Congress party’s “politics of appeasement” versus the Modi government’s “politics of progress” and appealed to the people to bring back the BJP to power with a majority.
Mr Amit Shah was accompanied by the BJP candidate for Gundlupet Niranjan Kumar and Mysuru MP Pratap Simha during the roadshow, which began at Madadahalli in the town and passed through the old bus stand.
Earlier, Mr Amit Shah, who arrived in Mysuru on Sunday, visited Chamundeshwari temple atop Chamundi Hills on Monday morning before flying to Gundlupet in a helicopter.