Congress, BJP in Karnataka cross swords over vaccine promise

Bengaluru: Taking serious exception to the BJP's poll promise in Bihar of providing free Covid vaccine if the party is voted to power, the Congress in Karnataka termed the saffron party as "Opportunist BJP" while the Karnataka BJP countered it by asking the Congress to "remove hate Modi glasses" and know the difference between governance and poll promise.

Launching a scathing attack through his Twitter handle, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah said, "Would the state BJP dare to ask the Union government to provide free Covid vaccines for Kanndiagas too?"

He also said that Karnataka Chief Minister Yediyurappa won't make such a promise to Kannadigas.

Pointing at Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka, Siddaramaiah said, "Sitharaman has made it clear that distribution of Covid vaccine entirely depends on the outcome of the Bihar elections. Should the pandemic not be a concern for the Union government? What does PM Narendra Modi have to say about this? Is it vote over health and life for BJP?"

Training his guns on the BJP MPs and other leaders from the saffron party, Siddaramaiah said the state has elected 25 BJP MPs and these MPs have no gumption to even make a formal demand to supply free vaccines to Karnataka.

Taking pot-shots at the BJP, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President, D.K. Shivakumar demanded that the ruling BJP at the Centre must come out in the open on whether the Union government has started the procurement of vaccines for this disease.

"If they have, they could have at least used them to save their own leaders like Union Minister of State for Railways, Suresh Angadi. Union ministers of Sitharaman's stature should not have been part of such politicking," he said while campaigning for the party candidate in R.R. Nagara, which is going to the polls on November 3.

Rebutting these allegations, Karnataka BJP too tweeted, saying: "Dear @siddaramaiah If you remove your 'Hate Modi Glasses' and look around, you will see that PM @narendramodi treats all Bharatiyas as equal. It is height of stupidity that you don't understand the difference between a poll manifesto and governance."