Bengaluru, Jan 6 (PTI) The opposition BJP in Karnataka on Tuesday took a dig at Siddaramaiah for his ‘failures’ as he is set to become the longest serving Chief Minister of Karnataka on January 7.
There was no reason for people to feel happy about Siddaramaiah becoming the longest serving Chief Minister because of “corruption, bickering, financial crisis in the state government and lack of development work”, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters here.
“Other than being the longest serving Chief Minister, there is no other achievement of Siddaramaiah,” Joshi claimed.
Alleging that there was an influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, he sought to know why all such persons prefer coming during the Congress rule.
Joshi said the BJP is on the job of identifying and throwing out the illegal immigrants.
BJP MP Lahar Singh Siroya contested the claim that Siddaramaiah has become the longest serving Chief Minister surpassing Devaraj Urs’ record.
“Urs was chief minister for continuous terms from March 1972 to January 1980. His term was not broken like that of Siddaramaiah, who lost power in 2018 when Congress was defeated in the polls, and he himself had lost his Chamundeshwari seat in Mysuru,” the Rajya Sabha member said in a post on ‘X’.
Urs had long years in office because the 1976 elections were postponed by the then Prime Minister late Indira Gandhi who had imposed the Emergency and jailed all Opposition leaders, Siroya said.
For a couple of months at the beginning of 1978 there was President’s rule in Karnataka. But still, as chief minister, Urs had continuous terms, he added.
He pointed out that India’s longest serving chief ministers were Pawan Kumar Chamling, Naveen Patnaik, Jyoti Basu, Mohan Lal Sukhadia, Manik Sarkar, Mamata Banerjee and Narendra Modi, who have all served unbroken terms, and that too for more than a decade.
“I only wish Shri Siddaramaiah and his followers were more modest about his non-achievement. His record does not sadly qualify for even the Limca Book of Records or the Guinness World Records,” he stated.
In its post on ‘X’, the BJP termed Siddaramaiah as “Abhinava Arasu” (Neo King).
“Congratulations to Abhinava Arasu for scripting a new record… once you get a break from the achievements of failures in your record administration, give it a thought @siddaramaiah sir,” the party said.
The BJP alleged that in 7 years and 240 days of administration corruption has exceeded limits, debt burden is high, development Is zero, and hooliganism has increased.
It also charged that the schools are in ruins, recruitments are not happening, unemployment is rampant and farmers’ suicides are unaccounted for.
The party alleged that prices of essential commodities have sky rocketed.
In another post, the BJP called Siddaramaiah an “outgoing CM,” who was going to set the record “limping, crawling, and fearing resignation”. PTI GMS GMS SA
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