Rahul Gandhi's disqualification a campaign issue in poll-bound Karnataka, says Congress leader Veerappa Moily

The disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha member would be a campaign issue for the Congress in the Assembly elections in Karnataka and it would contribute to the defeat of the BJP government in the state, senior party leader M Veerappa Moily said on Monday.

In an interview with PTI, the former Karnataka chief minister said there is a ”groundswell” of support for the Congress in the state, and his party’s campaign on corruption issues have worked, while the BJP is facing a ”strong, anti-incumbency wave”.

”Definitely, it (Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification following his conviction and sentencing by a Surat court) will be a campaign issue,” the former Union minister said.

Asked if the disqualification issue would serve to the ”political advantage” of the Congress in the poll-bound state, Moily said: ”It’s everywhere in the country; after all, it (the issue) shows that it’s the peak of vendetta politics”.

He said the issue would create a sympathy wave in part for the Congress becoming ”one of the factors that will be responsible for the fall of the BJP”.

Moily said his party’s campaign is far more aggressive than the ruling BJP, which is concentrating more on the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah image, adding that the Congress would also focus on ”exposing” the BJP and the Narendra Modi-led government and their ”revengeful politics”.

He alleged that the BJP government has ”messed up” the reservation issue in Karnataka.

Moily was referring to the Basavaraj Bommai government’s recent decision on scrapping four per cent reservation for Muslims within the OBC category and earmarking an additional two per cent each to Vokkaliga and Veerashaiva-Lingayat communities and creating four sub-categories to introduce internal quota for different Dalit communities under the SC category.