Karnataka Congress leaders to begin statewide 'Praja Dhwani' poll tour tomorrow

Aiming to unseat the ruling BJP, the Congress will hit the road in poll-bound Karnataka from January 11 with an election tour titled ‘Praja Dhwani’, jointly led by party state unit President D K Shivakumar and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah.

The tour covering 21 districts will see the party sharing its ideas with the people and assuring all-round development of the state, while attacking the BJP government with a ”chargesheet” it has prepared.

As part of the tour programme, both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, who are nursing chief ministerial ambitions in the event of the Congress coming to power, will travel in the same bus until January 29.

Thereafter, in the second week of February, they will form separate teams, with one group headed by Siddaramaiah set to tour Assembly constituencies in north Karnataka region, while Shivakumar will be leading the way in southern districts.

”Praja Dhwani is the voice and feelings of the people. To inform people about the failures of the BJP’s three-and-half years rule and what we (Congress) do, to better the lives of the people, this yatra is being organised,” Shivakumar said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said the tour will begin on Wednesday in Belagavi, where Mahatma Gandhi had historically presided over the Congress session in 1924.

”We seek your (people) blessings as we will script the way forward for the Congress’ victory and for a change in Karnataka,” Shivakumar said, as he targeted the BJP government for corruption and ’40 per cent commission’, and highlighted its alleged ”misrule”, ”scandals”, and investments flowing into neighbouring states.

Announcing details of the tour, the party on Tuesday released a ”chargesheet” of sorts against the government in the state titled ”BJP’s Paapada Purana” (Epics of BJP’s sins), listing out price rise and various corruption allegations.

It also launched a website to collect inputs from the people of the state for the manifesto, and unveiled the ‘Praja Dhwani’ campaign logo.

Siddaramaiah, who is also the Congress Legislature Party leader, calling Basavaraj Bommai ”the most weakest” chief minister Karnataka has seen said: ”Not only is he corrupt, he is also a coward in front of the Union government… This 40 per cent commission government, the government of ‘Ali Baba and the 40 thieves’.” He also took a dig at the state’s BJP MPs for not putting pressure on the Union government to give Karnataka Rs 5,495 crore special grant recommended by the 15th Finance Commission, as he charged that the special grant was ”rejected” by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Further alleging that the state was in deep debt, the former chief minister said the BJP government has borrowed Rs 3 lakh crore loans in just four years.

”They have borrowed so much that even interest payments are tough. The loan burden will add up to Rs 83,000 per person… Can the state survive?” he asked, as he made the case for Congress to come to power.