Terming his defeat in the last Lok Sabha election on his home turf of Kalaburagi as an act of “deception”, All-India Congress Committee (AICC) president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge has called upon the people to “avenge” his defeat by electing Congress candidates in this polls.
Mr. Kharge has decided not to contest from the Kalaburagi Lok Sabha constituency. He had won the Assembly elections nine times in a row since 1972 and the Lok Sabha polls twice from Kalaburagi in 2009 and 2014. He tasted his first defeat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election against BJP’s Umesh Jadhav. His son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani is contesting from the Kalaburagi seat this time.
“This time, you should avenge my defeat by defeating the BJP and electing the Congress,” Mr. Kharge said at a public meeting that he addressed after his son-in-law filed his nomination papers on Friday.
On ‘Modi guarantees’
Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s guarantees as “copies of the Congress’ guarantees”, Mr. Kharge went on to attack the Prime Minister.
“Mr. Modi had promised to bring back the Indian black money deposited in foreign banks and distribute it among the Indian citizens. He had promised to generate two crore jobs. He had promised to double farmers’ income. He could fulfil none. Now, he is coming with new assurances terming them Modi’s guarantees. His new guarantees are, in fact, copies of the Congress’ guarantees ... In the run-up to the Karnataka Assembly elections last year, we promised five guarantees and have implemented all of them. We are now giving you five more guarantees in the Lok Sabha elections and we will fulfil them,” Mr. Kharge said, describing the guarantees of the INDIA bloc.
“If poor people are surviving, it’s because of the MGNREGA and the five guarantees of the Congress government in Karnataka,” he said.
‘Unique washing machine’
Referring to the raids by Central agencies on Opposition leaders, Mr. Kharge alleged that the Union government was using the agencies to threaten Opposition leaders and force them to join the BJP.
“Mr. Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have a unique washing machine which cleans corrupt human beings and not dirty clothes. The people who, when they were in the Opposition, were termed corrupt and booked for corruption by the BJP government itself will be cleaned as soon as they join the BJP,” he said.
Terming the current general elections as not just the fight between individual candidates or parties but between the democratic forces and the anti-democratic forces, Mr. Kharge said, “I am still alive to realise the dreams of Basavanna and Ambedkar... The Modi-led government is already destroying the constitutional bodies and Central agencies by pushing RSS people into them.”
