Was Mangaluru blast something like 26/11 or Pulwama, questions KPCC chief

BENGALURU: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president D K Shivakumar on Thursday stoked a major controversy when he questioned if the Mangaluru cooker blast was anything like the 26/11 Mumbar terror attack or the Pulwama attack.

At a meet-the press event at the Press Club of Bangalore on Thursday, Shivakumar questioned, “Who asked the DG (DG&IGP) to declare that he (Mohammed Shariq) is a terrorist without any investigation? Was it a terrorist act like what happened in Mumbai or Delhi or anywhere else, or on the country’s border like Pulwama in Kashmir?”

Shivakumar also alleged that the BJP government had raised the cooker blast case to divert people’s attention from the deletion of names from the voters’ list.

Stating that there was “nothing” in the case, Shivakumar added, “Some fellow might have made some mistake. But how are you trying to project it? This is because of votegate. They wanted to steal the votes. In the history of Indian politics, there has never been such a massive fraud to disenfranchise voters anywhere in the country. This is a black mark on the state. Corruption is everywhere — they stole votes, swallowed money, 40 per cent comission, roads, land, took away jobs and the lives of people. now they are feeding on the emotions of people”, he charged.

The KPCC chief said that their survey showed that the Congress will win 136 seats in the next Assembly election and that the BJP will win about 66-70 seats. He also said that the BJP government is on its last legs and may not even last the next 100 days.

Referring to the BJP’s charges about the Congress’ survival prospects, he said, “Even in places where we lost, we are getting 10 applications from prospective candiates. So far, we have received 1,350 applications”.

On Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s charge that the Congress is the “Gangotri (fountainhead) of corruption”, he questioned what is stopping the government from taking action if such was the case.

On the issue of turncoats who joined the BJP reportedly wanted to return to the Congress fold, Shivakumar gave a cryptic response saying, “Sankranti is not only for them, Sankranti is for us also”.