Karnataka assembly elections 2018: Siddaramaiah emulating Kerala violence, says Rajnath Singh

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday accused the Congress government in poll-bound Karnataka of adopting “the model of political violence” from Kerala, but assured people that BJP will end the violent targeting of political workers if it comes to power in the state. Addressing a series of campaign meetings for BJP, Singh also claimed that there have been 3,781 cases of suicide by farmers during the five-year Congress rule led by CM Siddaramaiah.

“It seems the Congress government in Karnataka has adopted the model of political violence from neighbouring Kerala. Many political workers were killed under Siddaramaiah’s rule. The BJP will bring an end to the political violence after coming to power in Karnataka,” he said. The campaign for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly is heating up with prominent leaders visiting the state and the political parties announcing their candidate lists for the polls.

BJP, which is making an all-out effort to oust the Congress government from the state, today released its fourth list of candidates. With that, it has declared nominees for 220 seats.

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On March 30, BJP president Amit Shah, on his fourth visit to the state after the announcement of the polling date, had accused the state government of unleashing violence against BJP and RSS workers.

Singh also claimed that not even senior govt officials were safe. “Who is responsible for the death of Mangaluru Deputy SP M K Ganapathi? Who humiliated Mysore Collector Shikha Rai? Even Lokayukta was stabbed in his office,” Singh said.

Ganapathy, 51, was found hanging from the ceiling fan at a lodge in Madikeri on July 7, prior to which he gave an interview to a TV channel in which he held a state government minister and senior administration officials responsible “if anything happens” to him.