Karnataka CM Bommai asks if Congress sees Dalits and Backward Classes as beggars

In the continuing exchange of words during the election season, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai asked whether state Congress president DK Shivakumar thought Dalits and Backward Classes were beggars. Reacting to Shivakumar's statement that Lingayats and Vokkaligas were not beggars, the Chief Minister on Friday, April 28, said that the Congress had the habit of “keeping Dalits inside the well and dropping them in the same place after getting their votes.”

"The Congress leaders never thought that I would become the Chief Minister. Once the new (reservation) quota was implemented, the Congress leaders got scared. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has spoken very badly about Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but the latter has swallowed all the criticisms and become 'Nanjunda' (another name for Lord Shiva),” Bommai said.

Bommai's remark came a day after Mallikarjun Kharge likened Prime Minister Modi to a "poisonous snake," drawing a strong rebuke from the BJP. Kharge later retracted his comment, saying that his remarks were not aimed at the Prime Minister but at his party.

Bommai also said that the BJP government will retain power in the state after the May 10 Assembly elections. "The Congress is scared because the BJP will retain power in Karnataka. That is why its leaders are commenting against Prime Minister Modi out of frustration," Bommai said.