‘Corruption is oxygen for…’: PM Modi hits out at Cong in Karnataka's Kalaburagi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday formally launched the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Lok Sabha election campaign in Karnataka as he arrived in the Kalaburagi district this afternoon to attend a mega rally.

He was welcomed and felicitated by senior party leaders Pralhad Joshi and BY Vijayendra, among others. Pledging to win more than 400 seats this time around, PM Modi said the southern state of Karnataka has already resolved to make the saffron party a victor in the upcoming election.

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"This crowd of people in Kalaburagi and this enthusiasm on the faces of all of you, Karnataka has resolved to make BJP win a record number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The election is yet to be announced and you have already announced it. Today the whole of Karnataka is saying that this time we will cross 400," He said.

Hitting out at the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the state, he said, “The law and order situation in Karnataka has worsened. Anti-social elements are being given protection in the state. I can understand the anger that all of you have against Congress. It is such a party that no matter how many clothes they change, their activities won't change. The blackness of coal can be removed but corruption can't be separated from Congress. For these dynasts, corruption is oxygen. Therefore, the people in Karnataka have been awakened. People have come know the truth of Congress.”

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Kalaburagi is the home turf of Congress National President M Mallikarjun Kharge, who is also the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Kharge has fought the Gulbarga Lok Sabha constituency seat twice before, and faced his first ever electoral loss in the 2019 general election, when he lost to BJP's Umesh Jadhav.

PM Modi decided to start off the BJP's election campaign from this region after the saffron party once again decided to field Jadhav from the seat, where it has disrupted the Congress party's historical dominance.

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Congress on the other hand is in talks to field Kharge's son-in-law Radhakrishna Doddamani after his loss in 2019. PM Modi is scheduled to visit several areas in South India in the coming days, and is likely to be in party veteran B S Yediyurappa's home district, Shivamogga, on March 18.

The BJP, which lost to Congress in the May 10 assembly election in Karnataka, is looking to regain its foothold in the south. The PM set foot in Karnataka after addressing a public rally in Telangana's Nagarkurnool earlier today.

(With ANI inputs)