"Pluck Siddaramaiah and throw him out," says Amit Shah in Karnataka

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tour Karnataka in February next year.

Calling the Congress government in Karnataka 'the most corrupt', the BJP National President Amit Shah called for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's ouster.

He was speaking at a meeting called with intellectuals from various walks of life in Bengaluru on Saturday. The event that was scheduled to be an interactive session ended up being an address by Shah.

"I have never seen a government more corrupt that Siddaramaiah's. His ministers are raided but neither is the minister questioned nor is his resignation sought. Perhaps the government is scared of being exposed. Siddaramaiah is like a transformer who has gone kaput. He refuses to allow the electricity of development from the centre to reach Karnataka. When something stops working, you need to pluck it out. Throw out Siddaramaiah," Amit Shah urged the gathering.

Former Governor of Jharkhand and Bihar Rama Jois, renowned cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, senior RSS members, advocates, Chartered accountants, bankers, urban scientists and conservationists etc were invited to be part of the intellectual's meet on Saturday. Many were left disappointed that no interaction took place in a meeting that was called for the very purpose.

"Leadership in BJP not based on birth or family"

Taking potshots at the Congress, Shah claimed that the BJP was the only truly democratic party in the country. "Leaders in my party are not born into families. They rise from the grassroots level. None can guess who will be the next BJP National President but does anyone have a doubt over who the next President of Congress will be after Sonia Gandhi," he mocked the Nehru-Gandhi family.

In his attempt to push BJP as a democratic entity Shah said that parties are to be evaluated on internal democracy, ideology and performance when in power. He went on to state that the BJP topped in all three criterion. "BJP has been able to give the country good Prime Ministers and Chief Minister because of this internal democracy," Shah said.

"Congress was merely a special purpose vehicle"

Deeming the Congress an entity that came to be without a singular ideological identity, Amit Shah called it a 'special purpose vehicle'. The Congress was merely a group formed by people who wanted freedom. People of all ideologies, beliefs joined the Congress to fight for freedom. Its foundation has no ideology but only had intent. It was a special purpose vehicle with people of all ideologies onboard," he said mockingly.

He compared that to the formation of Jan Sangh, the mother party that later became the BJP. Shah said that the Jan Sangh was formed on the basis of ideology. An ideology to provide alternates to the ones being offered by the Nehru government to help the people of India better.

Drawing comparisons between every state's economic performance, financial status, socio-cultural reforms under the Congress and the BJP government, Shah declared that states under BJP fared better. Be it in terms of economy, reforms or welfare schemes, Shah said that the BJP government had always ensured that states under its rule were put on the fast track for development.

Questioning the Siddaramaiah government on central funds, Shah asked where all the money was going. "You may not ask them, but I will. I have a list of funds released by the central government to Karnataka and I will ask Siddaramaiah the accounts for the same," he said in conclusion at Saturday's meeting.

OneIndia News