Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying when the Prime Minister is "supreme", then why he could not fulfill the dream of developing Karnataka. "When you are supreme, omnipotent, why couldn't you fulfil dream of developing K'taka, Priyanka Gandhi said as quoted by the news agency PTI.
Priyanka Gandhi, who was addressing a rally in Indi in Karnataka's Vijayapura, said that the Bharatiya Janata Party has looted Rs 1.5 lakh crore from Karnataka. She further said that today BJP cannot talk about issues, so every day they raise some new issue which has nothing to do with the development of Karnataka.
"In the last three and a half years, they (BJP) have looted Rs 1.5 lakh crore from Karnataka. With that money, they could have built 100 AIIMS hospitals, 30,000 smart classrooms and houses for 30 lakh poor people. Today they cannot talk about your issues in front of you, so every day they raise some new issue which has nothing to do with your development," Priyanka Gandhi said as quoted by the news agency ANI.
Earlier on Tuesday, Priyanka challenged PM Modi to fight an election on people's problems without bringing up issues from the past, making people fight or talk about terror, and proving his worth. She acknowledged that terror is a major issue and that many people are working to eradicate it, but she questioned PM Modi on how terror is a factor in the state election.
However, she stated that BJP leaders do not speak on any of the issues such as unemployment, women burdened by rising prices of essential goods, traders concerned about losses, and others, and that farmers and contractors in Karnataka are committing suicide and that the BJP, which ruled the state, cannot show their faces to the people because people's problems have doubled rather than decreased.
Priyanka was confident that Karnataka voters would vote for change in the upcoming Assembly elections, and she urged them to elect a Congress government with a comfortable majority. The 224-member Karnataka Assembly will undergo polls on May 10 and the votes will be counted on May 13. A total of 3,632 candidates are in the fray with 707 from incumbent BJP and 651 from Congress while 1,720 candidates will contest as Independent.