"Rama is in my name, I am a Hindu too not just BJP leaders," says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah

The Chief Minister was lashing out at BJP's "communal politics"

Accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of destroying social fabric on communal lines, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he was a Hindu too. The Congress strongman, during an event on Thursday, said, BJP did now own contracts to celebrate Rama Navami and Hanuman Jayanti.

"We celebrate Hanuman Jayanti and Rama Navami too. Do they (BJP) own the contract to celebrate these festivals? There is Rama in my name too, am I not a Hindu? Are they (BJP) the only Hindus? They are breaking the society in the name of religion and they should stop it," Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah was reacting to BJP MP Pratap Simha's "my religion before political career" tweet. The BJP MP who was arrested for disobeying police orders on Sunday took to Twitter after he was released and claimed that the Siddaramaiah government was not allowing Hanuman Jayanti celebrations in Hunsur.

The Karnataka Chief Minister, who is a self-proclaimed rationalist and secularist, unflinchingly called himself a Hindu in a bid to punch holes in the BJP's Hindutva narrative. Hindutva is fast developing into the only electoral agenda for the BJP in the upcoming Karnataka assembly polls 2018 with leaders like Nalin Kumar Kateel going public with it.

OneIndia News