Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed two rallies in Bagalkot and Chikkodi in northern Karnataka on Thursday, the day of the second phase of polls in the Lok Sabha elections.
Addressing the public in Bagalkot, Modi said, "The Congress is not ready to accept the air-strike executed. The Congress and JD(S) and other allied parties are not concerned about national issues but are concerned about their vote banks. Chief Minister Kumaraswamy himself had stated to not make Balakot a national issue. You tell me if Congress and JD(S) have their vote bank in Bagalkot or Balakot?", he said taking a jab at the coalition government in Karnataka.
The rallies went ahead as planned despite a complaint filed to the Karnataka Election Commission claiming that the rallies circumvented election rules. The complainants Ranjith Kumar and Sanjay Yadav, a pair of advocates, stated that the rallies violated provisions of the People's Representations Act, 1951. "BJP as a political party has very cleverly fixed the date of public rally of Narendra Modi on polling day and negate the provisions of Peoples Representation Act 1951 in order to propagate and display to the public election matter by means of cinematograph, television and other similar modes", stated the advocates in a letter to Sanjiv Kumar, Chief Electoral Officer for Karnataka.
However, it is to be noted that Modi addressed rallies outside of the areas that went to polls on Thursday. Election officials are yet to comment on whether the rallies violated rules.
The public addresses in Bagalkot and Chikkodi were part of Narendra Modi's whirlwind tour of of the state. He addressed seven rallies in ten days including in Koppal, Mangaluru, Bengaluru, Chitradurga and Mysuru. The BJP is hoping to capitalise on the strong turnouts at these rallies in the last phase of campaigning.