Referring to Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi's move to join Congress, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that few BJP leaders have boarded the sinking ship. Addressing a BJP rally in Bhalki of Bidar districts on Thursday, he claimed that this will not harm the party in the upcoming assembly elections.
Challenging the Congress leaders to clarify their stand on his government's decision to recommend for internal reservation among scheduled caste communities, he said that the Opposition party is not in favour of social justice advocated by the 12th-century saint Basavanna. Stating that it has been a three-decades-old demand of the SC communities, he alleged that Congress leaders are working against the principles of the social reformer by trying to bring a stay in the court on the government's move.
Bommai said that the BJP has meted out justice to all communities, including Lingayats. He alleged that Congress tried to divide Lingayats and did not make the community leaders as Chief Minister for the last several decades after S Nijalingappa, and also ill-treated Veerendra Patil.
"We have hiked reservation for SC and ST apart from bringing internal reservation, which Congress could not do during its tenure. Our government is functioning on the basic principles of Basavannna. All working class people including farmers are with the BJP. Congress has drowned in many States and it will be the turn of the party in Karnataka. Few [sic] BJP leaders have joined that party which is on the verge of drowning", Bommai said.
Terming the guarantee card launched by the Congress party as merely an election gimmick, he said that the Opposition leaders are deceiving voters with false promises. "The assembly election is a battle between good and bad people. You can deceive some of the people all of the time. But, you cannot cheat all the people all the time", he added.