Shivamogga: On the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) campaign trail, the ‘Modi wave’ remained strong as in Shivamogga, a huge crowd gathered to greet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the NES stadium in the city on May 5.
PM Modi tried to emotionally connect with the locals by starting his speech in Kannada and making references to the Kings of Keladi and Kadamba and Socialist Shantaveri Gopal Gowda.
Standing by his decision to demonetise higher denomination notes, PM Modi said that the move emptied the illegal coffers of the Congress leaders of the state.
In a veiled reference to Congress leader D K Shivakumar, he said, “A Congress leader has declared to the Election Commission that his personal wealth was Rs 75 Crores in 2008, Rs 225 Crores in 2013 and now it has grown to Rs 815 Crore in 2018. How can a common man earn so much in such a short time?”
Modi tried to woo the farmers by raising the controversy of Arecanut. He said, “The Congress government betrayed the Arecanut farmers by claiming that Arecanut causes cancer.”
Hitting out at the Congress party, he accused them of adopting the “divide and rule” policy of the British. He also laid blame on the Congress for gifting “PFI and SIMI and other violent organisations to Karnataka”.
Taking a stand for the BJP’s chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa, he said that they would not tolerate the use of abusive language against Yeddyurappa by the Congress leaders. “This is not acceptable,” said the Prime Minister.
