BELAGAVI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Saturday accused the Congress of functioning on the banned Popular Front of India's (PFI) agenda as it had placed two demands.
One, he said, is to increase the minority budget to Rs 10,000 crore, and the Congress "silently" has promised to do so. "PFI had asked for reservations for minorities, and the Congress said it would give 6% instead of 4%. Don't vote for Congress," he said at a rally in Saundatti here.
Shah said no one will trust their five poll guarantees. "Congress was defeated in states like Tripura, Assam, and Nagaland wherever it made these promises," he said.
Hitting out at the opposition party for "insulting" Savarkar, he said: "They don't know history. Rahul Baba (Rahul Gandhi), you insult Savarkar. Even if you live for 10 janams (births), you cannot make one-tenth of the sacrifices that Savarkar made."
He also highlighted that the BJP has installed Savarkar's portrait at the Assembly Hall in Belagavi's Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. He said the Congress, despite having governments in Karnataka, Goa, and at the Centre in the past, did not resolve the Mahadayi river water dispute. "In 2007, Sonia Gandhi had said in Goa that Mahadayi water would not be given to Karnataka," he alleged.
'Teach Savadi a lesson'In Athani, Shah appealed to the people of Athani constituency to defeat Congress candidate Laxman Savadi and teach him a lesson.
"In 2018 elections, the people of Athani had defeated Savadi. Despite that, our party made him deputy CM in the BS Yediyurappa government. We also made him an MLC," he said, adding Savadi has gone to the party that insulted Bajrang Bali and Veer Savarkar.
Ridiculing the five guarantees of Congress, Shah said Rahul Gandhi had given similar guarantees in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, and Tripura. "But still, the party badly got defeated there. The same will happen in Karnataka too," he said.
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