Siddaramaiah ridicules Vijayendra for celebrating birthday with farmers

Ridiculing BJP State unit president B.Y. Vijayendra for celebrating his birthday and spending a night with sugarcane growers protesting in Belagavi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said that he should have instead “slept in the houses of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah or Union Minister Pralhad Joshi,” as it is the Union government that decides the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane.

Speaking in Kudligi town after inaugurating various development projects, including the ₹859-crore scheme to fill 74 tanks in Kudligi taluk of Vijayanagara district, Mr. Siddaramaiah called the BJP leader’s Belagavi visit “a political drama”.

“Who decides the FRP for sugarcane? It is not the State government, but the Central government that fixes the FRP every year. Mr. Joshi is the Minister concerned. Mr. Vijayendra slept there in the agitation tent along with the farmers and even celebrated his birthday there. Instead, he should have slept in the houses of Mr. Modi, Mr. Shah and Mr. Joshi demanding a fair price for sugarcane,” the Chief Minister said.

As Mr. Vijayendra himself said, the Chief Minister quoted him as saying, he met the agitating farmers as a son of the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, not as a BJP leader.

“He has, indeed, gone there to provoke farmers and instigate them against the State government. We resolved the issue by offering ₹50 from the State and convincing the sugar mills to add ₹50 more, making the FRP ₹3,300 per tonne,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

Vote chori

Training his guns at the BJP’s “moral credentials”, Mr. Siddaramaiah accused that party of “stealing votes” to capture power in several States.

“The BJP assumed power at the Centre and in some States through vote chori. They don’t have even a minimum sense of shame. If they had it, they would have resigned and gone home. They have stolen votes in Mahadevpura and Aland constituencies in Karnataka and in Maharashtra and Haryana,” he claimed.

“They stole votes a couple of days ago in Bihar too. Those who voted in Delhi have also voted in Bihar. A single house in the Mahadevpura constituency has 80 votes. Is that possible? The BJP cannot keep away from power. Without it, it feels suffocated like fish out of water,” he again claimed.

State’s finances

Responding to the BJP criticism that the State government is “bankrupt” because of its spending on guarantee schemes, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the government has sufficient funds for both development projects and welfare programmes.

“In two-and-a-half years, Kudligi constituency alone has received ₹1,250 crore for development works. We have spent ₹1.12 lakh crore on subsidies, including power. Would this be possible if our government were bankrupt? We have enough revenue to fund guarantee schemes and development initiatives,” he said and asserted that the Congress government will fulfil all 513 promises made in its 2023 election manifesto.

The Chief Minister formally inaugurated a project for filling 74 tanks at a cost of ₹859 crore. This is expected to irrigate 14,050 acres and benefit over 1.67 lakh people in Kudligi taluk. The total cost of projects inaugurated and those for which foundation stones have been laid during the event is ₹1,250 crore.

Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi, Housing Minister and Vijayanagara district in-charge Zameer Ahmad Khan, Labour Minister Santosh Lad, Minor Irrigation Minister N.S. Boseraju and Kudligi MLA N.T. Srinivas, among others, attended the event.