New Delhi: Congress MP Randeep Surjewala slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over allegedly triggering border dispute between Karnataka and Maharashtra, and said PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah should not come to the southern state for election campaign till Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai and his Maharashtra counterpart Eknath Shinde step down from their chief ministerial posts.
“The country has a federal structure, which no one can attack. But the Maharashtra government of BJP implemented its scheme in about 600 villages of Karnataka. Modi ji, do you want to start a civil war in this country?” Congress leader Surjewala asked.
“By forcibly implementing the scheme of Maharashtra in the villages of Karnataka, the BJP is deliberately insulting the federal structure by triggering conflicts. All the issues capitalised by the BJP, such as Hindu-Muslim clash, caste clash, partition conspiracy have failed. So now, they are conspiring to make the border areas engage in clashes. Congress will never accept it,” Surjewala added.
Flanked by former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah and Congress's state unit chief DK Shivakumar, Surjewala made the comments during a press briefing on Thursday.
He also took potshots at the saffron party for not declaring its candidate even on a single seat in poll-bound Karnataka till date.
“Congress has announced most of the seats, but the BJP could not declare a single seat. I want to ask JP Nadda, why are you scared? Do JP Nadda, PM Modi, Amit Shah and CM Bommai think that announcement of seats will lead to issues in the party?” Surjewala said.
It is to be noted that the Karnataka Congress earlier in the day released its second list of 42 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections scheduled to be held on May 10. Last month, the grand old party had announced 124 candidates in its first list.