Don’t pay lip-service to Yediyurappa, Lingayats: Cong slams Modi’s birthday treat for former CM

Hold elections under BSY's leadership, swear him in as CM again. Only then will people accept it: D K Shivakumar

Shivakumar also raised the alleged targeting of Yediyurappa's family and friends by central agencies. (File)

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A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the Congress of ill-treatment of its leaders in Karnataka, state party chief D K Shivakumar slammed the PM for “paying lip-service” to B S Yediyurappa and the Lingayat vote, after having nudged the veteran out of the chief minister’s post in 2021.

On Monday, Modi attended the opening of an airport at Shivamogga, Yediyurappa’s native district, on his birthday, where he urged the people present to put their mobile torch lights on to extend their wishes to the leader. Shivakumar said the BJP was doing all this to ensure that the dominant Lingayat community doesn’t turn away from the party due to how Yediyurappa had been “sidelined”.

Shivakumar also raised the alleged targeting of Yediyurappa’s family and friends by central agencies.

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“Let them hold elections under his (Yediyurappa’s) leadership. Let them swear him in as CM again. Only then will people accept the regard shown to him. If they remove (Basavaraj) Bommai tomorrow and make him (Yediyurappa) the CM again, only then will there be real regard for Modi’s gestures, his show of friendship. Nobody wants only lip-service in politics,” the KPCC chief told reporters on Tuesday.

“We do not want lip-service of Modi sir or the BJP. What you do for the community and for the person is more important… The people are not stupid. They are capable of making their own decisions. They are aware of how the BJP has treated people in the past,” Shivakumar said.

The Congress leader added that the government held the airport inauguration after declining to allow Yediyurappa to hold the big event he wanted for his birthday. “Where was this kindness and regard earlier?” Shivakumar asked.

Raising the removal of Yediyurappa by the BJP as CM in July 2021, Shivakumar said the BJP should reveal “the real reasons” for doing this to the man under whose leadership it won 104 seats in the 2018 Assembly elections. “The honorable Modi should tell us about the pain and tears of Yediyurappa when he stepped down as the CM, while bidding farewell and before he went to meet the Governor (to resign),” he said.

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Shivakumar added: “The IT Department carried out raids on members of his family and close friends, the ED issued summons to members of the family. What was that all about?… How many times have higher officials summoned them and how many times agencies have summoned them, all this should be revealed.”

In his road show at Shivamogga where he felicitated Yediyurappa, Modi had accused the Congress of treating its leaders from Karnataka poorly, talking specifically of Lingayat leaders such as S Nijalingappa and Veerendra Patil, and now Mallikarjun Kharge.

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