Kumaraswamy hit back at Shah's remark by pointing to the dynastic politics in the Karnataka unit of BJP with Yediyurappa and sons.
Published Feb 24, 2023 | 9:03 PM ⚊ Updated Feb 24, 2023 | 9:03 PM
HD Kumaraswamy speaking at an event. (hd_kumaraswamy/Twitter)
Karnataka politics is heating up in the run-up to the Assembly polls — now just weeks away — with politicians indulging in often sharp verbal spats.
The latest to cross swords are former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and Union Home Minister and BJP’s second-in-command Amit Shah.
Responding to Shah’s jibe that the JD(S) was a dynastic party, Kumaraswamy, on Friday, 24 February, hit back by pointing to the dynastic politics prevailing in the Karnataka unit of the BJP, where former chief minister BS Yediyurappa and his sons hold key positions in the saffron party.
“We should felicitate Amit Shah for his concern for our house as to who will run our household matters. He should have asked the same to Yediyurappa once… Probably, he (Yediyurappa) would have answered,” Kumaraswamy told reporters at Theerthahalli in Shivamogga district.
On Thursday, while addressing the Vijay Sankalpa Samavesha at the erstwhile Sandur constituency — which is a Scheduled Tribe (ST) reserve Assembly seat and currently represented by Congress MLA E Tukaram — in Ballari district, Shah said that both the JD(S) and the Congress were dynastic parties.
“In the 2018 Assembly election, the BJP had emerged as the single-largest party but fell short of a few seats to form a government. This led to a power play between Congress and the JD(S) and corruption in Karnataka.”
“Both Congress and the JD(S) are dynastic parties. Dynastic parties will neither do good for people nor for the country,” Shah said, taking a dig at the 2018 Congress-JD(S) alliance government.
“You can’t find anyone in their family who doesn’t contest polls. Everyone wants to contest polls and lead Karnataka. I don’t understand as to who runs the house,” Shah had quipped.
Kumaraswamy charged that Shah lectured others while keeping Yediyurappa by his side.
“Yediyurappa has two sons and both are in politics. Then, who in his family is taking care of household work?” the JD(S) leader wondered.
Kumaraswamy also took objection to Shah’s comment that every vote to the JD(S) would eventually go to Congress.
Amit Shah, on Thursday, had also alleged that if it comes to power, the Congress would turn Karnataka into the party’s “ATM”.
“I want to tell the people of Karnataka that every vote to the JD(S) will go to the Congress and every vote to Congress will eventually go to Siddaramaiah and his ATM government, which was the ATM of Delhi and indulged in rampant corruption,” Shah said, asking people not to vote for either the JD(S) or the Congress.
Assembly polls in the state are due by May.
(With PTI inputs)
