Rajnath, Yogi pull ‘religion card’ on Cong

Tribune News Service

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, April 26

The campaigning for the May 10 Karnataka elections intensified on Wednesday with the BJP, the Congress and the JD-S fielding top guns to woo voters in the high-stakes battle for the 224-member Assembly.

The ruling BJP fielded several senior leaders with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and UP CM Yogi Adityanath attacking the Congress for playing the “religion card to attain power and implementing the now-scrapped 4 per cent reservation for Muslims in the state which was unconstitutional”.

In Belagavi, Rajnath questioned the Congress for practising the politics of mazhab. “If there is any party in the history of India that used mazhab to come to power, it is the Congress...To appease Muslims, four per cent reservation was given on religious lines,” he alleged.

Adityanath accused the grand old party of “continuing to divide the nation years after India was partitioned”. He was also referring to the Muslim reservation, which the Karnataka Government ended days before the model code was enforced.

Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, in a much-anticipated move, recalled her late grandmother and former PM Indira Gandhi’s struggles.

Addressing a rally in Chikmagalur’s Sringeri, Priyanka said, “In 1978, when Indiraji visited Chikmagalur, she was undergoing a difficult period. In that tough time, people of Chikmagalur stood with her. Today also, Rahulji and my family are entangled in tough times. We have confidence that people will stand with us.”

The Congress leader sought to evoke public sympathy over Rahul’s recent disqualification as Lok Sabha MP following a two-year sentencing by a Surat court.

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