Will Modi accept Siddaramaiah’s 5-minute dare to do corruption charcha on ‘Reddy bros’?

Siddaramaiah wants Modi to speak for five minutes on the "ethics of using Reddy brothers to win an election".

Bengaluru, May 5: Welcome to battleground Karnataka, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and incumbent chief minister Siddaramaiah are engaged in a very engaging "dare game".

First, it was Rahul at a public rally in Karnataka challenged PM Modi to give him a chance to speak for 15 minutes in Parliament on various issues, including corruption. After days of silence, Modi replied to Rahul in Karnataka. Instead of accepting the dare, the PM taunted the Congress president "to speak in any language" for 15 minutes about the achievements of the Siddaramaiah government without referring to a piece of paper.

Again, Modi's challenge is yet to be accepted by Rahul, but immediately the Karnataka CM hit back at the PM with a vengeance. "I challenge you to speak about the achievements of BS Yeddyurappa's Govt in Karnataka for 15 minutes by looking at a paper," Siddaramaiah hit Modi hard with the no-holds-barred tweet.

If that was not good enough, as Modi in various public platforms accused the Siddaramaiah government of being corrupt, the Karnataka CM on Saturday tweeted to throw another dare at the PM. This time, Siddaramaiah wants Modi to speak for five minutes on the "ethics of using Reddy brothers to win an election".

"Dear PM @narendramodi avare, I am glad you have made corruption an issue in this Election because that is your weakest point. You are making baseless allegations of corruption about our Govt. Can you speak for 5 minutes on the ethics of using the Reddy Bros' to win an election?" another hard-hitting tweet by the CM.

The BJP has given tickets to eight politicians belonging to the camp of scam-tainted mining barons, Reddy brothers, from Bellary in the state. Although the BJP is trying its best to keep itself away from the Reddy brothers at public platforms, the most powerful Gali Janardhana Reddy was seen at various BJP rallies in the recent past.

On Friday, the Supreme Court said that mining baron Janardhana Reddy, who is out on bail, cannot campaign in his home-turf Bellary for the upcoming Assembly elections scheduled on May 12. The results of the elections will be declared on May 15.

Now, it would be interesting to see if PM Modi will accept the latest dare by Karnataka CM and speak on corruption allegations against the BJP.