Lok Sabha election 2024: Prime Minister Narendra Modi kickstarted the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Lok Sabha poll campaign in Karnataka by addressing a public meeting in Kalaburagi today (March 16).
Prime Minister Modi was felicitated during a public meeting in Karnataka's Kalaburagi.
During a public meeting in Kalaburagi, PM Modi said, "This crowd of people in Kalaburagi and this enthusiasm on the faces of all of you, Karnataka has resolved to make BJP win a record number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The election is yet to be announced and you have already announced it. Today the whole of Karnataka is saying that this time we will cross 400."
Karnataka has decided to ensure BJP's record victory in state in Lok Sabha polls, PM added.
Prime Minister Modi said, "I can understand the anger that all of you have against Congress. It is such a party that no matter how many clothes they change, their activities won't change. Therefore, the people in Karnataka have been awakened. People have come know the truth of Congress."
Key pointers of PM Modi's speech
- Looking at support BJP is getting from South India, I.N.D.I.A bloc and our opponents are saying - this time it is BJP and everywhere people are looking towards BJP with hope
- For once, the blackness of coal can be removed but corruption can't be separated from Congress. For these dynasts, corruption is oxygen
- I have visited four states in South India over the last two days. Whether it was Tamil Nadu's Kanyakumari or Kerala's Pathanamthitta, people everywhere see BJP with a lot of hope. Today, I saw people in Telangana's Nagarkurnool taking 'Sankalp' of 'viksit Bharat' for their children
- Law and order situation has deteriorated in Karnataka
- In Karnataka, anti-social elements are given protection. Fear is being instilled in public. The public is in trouble but Congress is busy with looting
- When we say that India is the mother of democracy, the whole world accepts it. The world has no objection but when Congress people hear this their stomach starts paining. These people go all over the world and defame our country, our democracy, our great traditions
- Congress had promised free electricity in Karnataka and in return, people got power cut and darkness
- These people sat in the government after making big promises to the youth, but today they are stopping the scholarship of the same youth and cutting the scholarship. It is the Congress which It is committing the sin of killing the rights of the youth.
- The condition of Congress' loot is such that the government does not have money even for small development works. Can any government run like this?"
Kalaburagi is the home district of AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge, who was elected to the Lok Sabha from there in 2009 and 2014 but lost to BJP's Umesh Jadhav in the last general elections. The Congress is likely to field the 81-year-old Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani this time, according to party sources.
Rally in Shivamogga
Modi will also address a public gathering in Shivamogga on March 18, Sunil Kumar told media at the BJP state headquarters in Delhi.
"The public meeting will be held at NV Playground on March 16 at Kalaburagi. The event in Shivamogga will take place at Allamaprabhu Ground on March 18."
Poll campaigning in Karnataka
Karnataka is the most important state for the BJP in south India as it's only here that it had held power in the past. The BJP swept the previous Lok Sabha elections bagging 25 seats out of the total 28 in the state, while an independent backed by the party also won.
The Congress and the JD(S) headed by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who were running a coalition government back then and fought the elections together, came a cropper winning a seat each.
But the political landscape has changed significantly since then. The Congress scored a landslide victory in the May Assembly polls, winning 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The BJP and JD(S) slumped to 66 and 19 seats, respectively. The JD(S) joined the BJP-led NDA last September and the two parties are fighting the elections together.
Sunil Kumar said BJP president JP Nadda, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath along with other national leaders will visit different Lok Sabha constituencies and address public gatherings in the coming weeks.
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