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Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar on Friday lambasted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for not standing up for the poor and the downtrodden.
Speaking at a campaign rally at Mundagod, Shivakumar said, "BJP government is dead. It doesn't stand with the poor. Lakhs of people died during Covid due to mismanagement and now people who are vaccinated are dying, thanks to BJP's corruption in vaccination." Attacking the BJP for mismanagement during the pandemic, Shivakumar said, "BJP said it has released Rs 20 lakh crore for Covid relief, has anyone received Covid relief? Where is that money? They printed Modi's photo on vaccination certificates but why did they not print his photo on the death certificates of Covid victims?" "During Covid, we appealed to Chief Minister Yediyurappa to release a sustenance amount of Rs 10,000 to workers, but they released only half of that. They increased bus fares by three times during Covid while we fought for free tickets to the affected," he added. Hitting out at the BJP for merging banks of Karnataka with other national banks, the Deputy CM said, "The only achievement of the BJP was to kill Karnataka's banks such as Corporation bank, Vijaya Bank, Syndicate bank by merging them with other nationalised banks." "PM Modi said that farmers' income will be doubled but nothing has happened. They said they would bring back all the corrupt money from abroad but nothing happened," he said. Comparing the rule of the BJP with that of the Congress, Shivakumar said, "BJP has given the people price rise and inflation. We tried to alleviate people's pain with guarantee schemes. Indira Gandhi brought the 'tiller is the land lord' scheme and Manmohan Singh gave us the Forest Act to give land to Adivasis. Congress government will issue pattas to adivasis very soon." Hitting out at the BJP for allegedly practising communal politics, the Deputy CM said, "BJP talks about Hindus. Aren't Siddaramaiah, Deshpande and I Hindus? It was Bangarappa who brought the Aradhana scheme to help small temples. There should be no politics on religion. We are fighting to save the Constitution written by Baba Saheb Ambedkar." (ANI)
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