Congress candidate from Bagalkot Samyukta Patil began her Lok Sabha election campaign on Monday despite the threat of rebellion from the Kashappanavar faction among the District Congress.
The young lawyer from Vijayapura is the daughter of Minister Shivanand Patil.
She is facing opposition from her fellow party leaders, Congress MLA from Hungund Vijayanand Kashappanavar and his wife and ticket aspirant Veena Kashappanavar.
Ms. Kashappanavar is the vice-president of the Mahila Congress State unit. She has threatened to resign her party positions and fight as an independent candidate against Ms. Patil.
Addressing a party rally in Lokapur, Ms. Patil said that the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is working only to enrich the large corporates and not the rural poor or farmers.
Mr. Modi loves entrepreneurs more than farmers who provide food to the nation. He is blind to the plight of farmers. The Prime Minister seems to lack the sympathy and humanitarian considerations to help the poor farmers of Karnataka who lost their lives, crops, houses and cattle in the floods.
Instead of responding to the farmers struggle for the fulfilment of demands like scientific prices for agricultural produce, the BJP government tried to suppress the movement. The Prime Minister and other leaders did not support the Olympian women wrestlers who fought against sexual harassment. Mr. Modi has neither visited Manipur nor tried to end the violence there, she said.
“Karnataka is reeling under severe drought. Farmers are suffering. When Chief Minister Siddaramaiah requests the Central government for relief funds to help farmers, the Union government has been delaying it citing excuses like application of guidelines. But the same BJP government readily waives lakhs of crores of rupees debts of rich industrialists and businessmen. Farm loans are not waived but corporate loans are waived. Taxes paid by the poor and middle classes are not reduced but wealth tax and corporate taxes are waived or reduced. The Union government said that it will sanction ₹5,400 crore for the Upper Krishna Project. But not a single rupee was released,” she said.
“Mr. Modi mocked us when the Congress announced five guarantee schemes during the Assembly elections. He criticized that the State will become financially bankrupt if the guarantees are implemented. But it did not happen as the Congress fulfilled all guarantees. The beneficiaries are made to get all guaranteed benefits of the government without bribes or middlemen. The State government released drought relief amounts, though the Centre did not provide any assistance,” she said.
“The price of essential items has skyrocketed. The life of common people has been made difficult. Instead of talking about what needs to be done in such a crisis, the BJP leaders are talking about changing the Constitution. The Congress needs to be brought back to power at the Centre, if the rights of the citizens are to be protected,” she said.
She said that P.C. Gaddigoudar, who has been the BJP MP from Bagalkot for 20 years, has done little to develop the backward district. The MP has never raised his voice in Parliament to speak for issues concerning the district, she said.
District in-charge Minister R.B. Timmapur said that the BJP is involved in large-scale corruption through Electoral Bonds. Political economist Parakala Prabhakar has described it as the biggest scam in the world. His wife and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman should clarify her stand on it, he said.
“The Prime Minister inaugurated an unfinished Ayodhya Ram Mandir for political reasons. It was done only with an eye on elections. They tend to remember Hindutva and Lord Rama only before elections. They forget that we are also Hindus. We also worship Rama in our house,” Mr. Thimmapur said.
