Opposition Alliance INDIA New Version Of East India Company: BJP leader Karandlaje

The formation of a new opposition alliance called 'INDIA' at the national level is nothing but a new version of the East India Company, BJP leader and Union Minister Shobha Karandlaje has said.

Those who looted the country for 60 years have now come together for power, she alleged, addressing reporters in Udupi on Wednesday. "It is now India vs Bharat," she said. Karandlaje ridiculed the alliance, saying all the leaders who attended the opposition meeting in Bengaluru are prime ministerial candidates.

The Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare said the name of the alliance, INDIA, also violates the provisions of Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950. On the five poll guarantees of the Congress government in Karnataka, she said the transport corporations in the state will have to be shut down in four months as there is no budgetary support for the 'Shakti' scheme that offers free travel for women in the public transport system.

She claimed that the state government is blaming the Centre for not providing rice for 'Anna Bhagya' scheme without participating in the auction process of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to procure the cereal.