‘What is your behind-the-scenes agreement with SDPI’, BJP questions Karnataka Congress

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], April 15 (ANI): The political fight ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections is intensifying as the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday sought clarification from Congress regarding its alleged relation with banned outfit Popular Front of India and its political wing SDPI.
Speaking to ANI, BJP spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi said that in the run-up to the state Assembly elections, there are issues emerging which are sensitive from the point of view of national security and the policy of Congress.
"The statement of SDPI leader Abdul Majeed that the Congress is pressurizing him to withdraw his candidate from the election shows that he has some understanding and if it was just an isolated statement, SDPI's Mohammad Ilyas, the general secretary of the Congress, has also said that there was a coalition in 2018, which means it was very clear that the alliance was there in 2018 as well as in 2023," he said.
Notably, Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar has said that the party would contest the Assembly elections alone and would not forge an alliance with any party.
Trivedi cited a media report and claimed that various members of PFI are now working in SDPI and sought to know if Congress has a "behind-the-scenes agreement with SDPI".
"While this is such a dangerous topic that PFI was not officially banned then, today it is officially banned by law. A leading country weekly magazine has revealed in its investigative story that many people of PFI are working in SDPI. So we want to know from the Congress party what is your behind-the-scenes agreement with SDPI, it should come before the country because it is a question of the country's security as well Karnataka's security," he said.
"You are talking about the Bharat Jodo Yatra, the news of your coordination with such organizations is for Bharat Jodo? I want to ask Rahul Gandhi, you used to say that I am decorating the shop of love, which shop of love are you decorating by compromising with hatred," the BJP leader added.
He alleged that the previous Congress government had withdrawn 1,700 cases against PFI and SDPI workers citing a lack of evidence.
"The previous Congress government in the state ignored Hampi Utsav and showed interest in Tipu Jayanti celebrations. In 2019, then-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan also paid tribute to Tipu. The PFI and SDPI organizations encouraged the protests against the Citizenship Act. These same organizations had also created the hijab controversy. Shivakumar said that the Mangalore blast case is called a terrorist act," Trivedi said.
Karnataka will go to Assembly polls on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13. (ANI)