Sonia's Karnataka visit may save deposits : Modi

Vijayapura (Karnataka), May 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took a dig at the Congress, claiming that its leaders were now saying that if former party chief Sonia Gandhi canvasses in the state, it can at least save the security deposits of Congress candidates.

Modi said he had on Monday watched an interview of a Congress leader who said that the son (Congress President Rahul Gandhi) “will not be able to do anything”.

“If you bring the mother (Sonia) to Karnataka and she does something, then maybe the deposits can be saved. This is what Congress leaders have started speaking,” Modi said at a rally here.

His remarks came on a day Sonia Gandhi is scheduled to address a rally at Bijaypur, her first election rally in nearly two years.

Modi also accused the state’s Congress government of trying to gain votes by seeking to divide communities.

He claimed the Congress was spreading lies on the issue of women’s security and said that a daughter is a daughter irrespective of the community she belongs to.

The Prime Minister also accused the Congress of not supporting the triple talaq bill in the Rajya Sabha.

Modi said the Bharatiya Janata Party was seeking votes in the name of development but the Congress was in such a position that their leaders did not have faith in their ‘naamdar’ (dynast) leader.

Modi referred to Vijayapura as the birth place of Lord Basaveshwara, a 12th century social reformer and philosopher who founded the Lingayat religious tradition, and targeted Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah government over its move to recommend minority community status for the Lingayats in the southern state. IANS