Amit Shah Calls Karnataka Govt ‘Anti-Hindu’, Siddaramaiah Hits Back With 'Extremists' Jibe

Bengaluru: BJP president Amit Shah, who was in Karnataka to campaign for the upcoming Assembly polls, continued the war of words with chief minister Siddaramiah that was started by Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Addressing a rally at Holalkere town in Chitradurga district, Shah accused the Congress government in the state of being “anti-Hindu”. "The Siddaramaiah government is doing vote bank politics, it is an anti-Hindu government," he said.

He cited the case of Social Democratic Party of India, the political arm of Kerala’s Popular Front of India, whose members have been accused of killing an RSS worker in Kerala. “The government has withdrawn all cases against the Social Democratic Party of India, which is an anti-India organisation,” he added.

The Karnataka CM hit back and accused the BJP, as well as the RSS and Bajrang Dal, of harbouring extremist elements.

“The government will not leave those who disturb peace, we will not tolerate it,” Siddaramaiah told reporters. “It does not matter if it is the SDPI or the Bajrang Dal, whatever organisation it is, we will not tolerate it,” he said.

The bitter exchange comes just a two days after Siddaramaiah and Yogi Adityanath traded barbs on Twitter over what it means to be a Hindu.

While Yogi attacked Siddaramaiah for calling himself a Hindu, Siddaramaiah said he follows the Hindutva of Swami Vivekananda and not Mahatma Gandhi assassin Nathuram Godse.

Karnataka is the only southern state where the BJP had been in power and hopes to wrest the state from the Congress in the upcoming polls.

Amit Shah also attacked the Congress government for not taking action against the murders of RSS workers in the state. He said that 21 members of the BJP and RSS had been killed in the last three years. "Stop these murders. This government doesn't have long. BJP will be here soon and put those responsible in jail," he said.

The BJP president also accused the state government of depriving the people from the amount that the Centre has sanctioned for Karnataka.

“Where did all the amount sanctioned by Modi government for the development of Karnataka go?” he asked, adding that the Centre had increased Karnataka government’s share from Rs 88,583 crore to Rs 2,19,500 crore.