Referring to the audio clip in which Manikanth Rathod, a BJP candidate for Chittapur allegedly expressed his intentions to “finish off” All India Congress Committee (AICC) president M. Mallikarjun Kharge and his family, Congress leaders in Kalaburagi alleged that the conspiracy to assassinate the Kharge family must have been hatched by the BJP’s top brass.
“The plot to assassinate AICC president Mr. Kharge appeared to have been designed at the top level in BJP. An ordinary habitual offender [Mr. Rathod] cannot dare to go to such an extent without the backing of his party’s top brass. BJP leaders are desperate as they know that they are going to lose the Assembly elections in Karnataka. That is why they are attempting to physically eliminate the Kharge family. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who speaks volumes about peace, order and morality in his public addresses, is silent over the claims of the assassination of the Kharge family. It is his fundamental duty to speak on this and tell the truth to the country,” D. Sridhar Babu, AICC secretary in-charge of Kalyana Karnataka said in a media conference at the local party office in Kalaburagi on Sunday.
Mr. Babu also questioned why neither law enforcement agencies nor the Election Commission of India (ECI) had acted upon it even 24 hours after the audio clip had gone viral. “As an eyewash measure, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that he would get the issue enquired. But nothing has happened on the ground. It clearly shows the involvement of top brass in BJP and their reluctance to get to the bottom of the barrel,” Mr. Babu said.
