Siddaramaiah will not be the Chief Minister even if Congress is voted to power, Union Minister Prahald Joshi said in Dharwad on Sunday.
Addressing an OBC voters’ rally at Sannidhi hall on JSS campus, he said that Congress would utilise Mr. Siddaramaiah for getting votes and then snub him, to make someone else the CM, he said.
He alleged that some poll surveys were predicting a favourable trend towards the Congress, as the agencies that conducted them, were paid by the party. Going by the trends predicted by the surveys, Congress leaders are under the false impression that they will come to power. That is far from truth, he said.
Congress is not concerned about the welfare of the OBCs like Kurubas. It is only using leaders from those communities to swing their votes, he said. Congress has used the OBCs only as vote bank but it never worked for their welfare in over six decades, he said.
But the BJP government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken several steps towards OBC welfare. We have accorded Constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission. BJP governments in the Centre and in Karnataka have increased the reservation quota for OBCs, and created a special quota in medical entrance stream, built student hostels and increased the scholarships. OBC community has benefited greatly under the Mudra scheme, he said.
Arvind Bellad, MLA and BJP nominee, said the Modi government had provided cooking gas at subsidised prices to OBC women, and built lakhs of toilets.
BJP city president Sanjay Kapatkar, State Maratha Development Board president Maruti Rao Mule, HDMC members Vijayanand Shetty, Shankar Shelke, Rajeshwari Salgatti and others were present.
