Mangaluru: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah asked the Congress workers of the Dakshina Kannada district to be ready to face another Assembly election, stating that the Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa-led BJP government will fall soon.
He was speaking at a Congress workers’ conference organised at the Town Hall on Saturday, August 31. “The present BJP government was formed illegally and it will not last long. As the Parliament and Assembly elections are quite different from each other, the workers should not worry about the defeat in the Parliamentary elections. I am confident that the Congress retain its power in the Assembly, Gram Panchayat and Municipality elections, ” he said.
Speaking about the damages incurred due to the recent floods, Siddaramaiah said, “Over four lakh people have lost their properties and 100 villages have been washed away due to the floods in Karnataka. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has neither visited nor released a single rupee as compensation for the flood-hit regions so far. Even though the people elected 25 BJP MPs to the Parliament, their representatives have failed to convince the Central Government to release compensation. When a similar situation occurred in Karnataka in 2012, the then PM Dr Manmohan Singh paid a visit to the flood-hit areas and released Rs 1,600 crores.”
Questioning PM Modi’s priorities, he said, “Instead of releasing compensations for the flood-affected immediately, Modi prefers to visit foreign countries. His priority must be to tour foreign countries and favour industrialists and corporate companies.”
Earlier, MLC Ivan D’Souza, former chief minister M Veerappa Moily, former ministers B Ramanath Rai, U T Khader and former MLA Shakunthala Shetty shed some light on the pro-people programmes of the Congress government and urged the public to support the party in the next elections.
