The public is fighting Karnataka Assembly election on behalf of BJP: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the overwhelming response he received in Bengaluru during the roadshow made him believe that it is the people who are contesting the 2023 assembly elections in Karnataka on behalf of the BJP.

The Prime Minister also said the "never-seen-before love and affection" he saw in Bengaluru was "unparalleled".

"This morning, I went to have a 'darshan’ (opportunity to see) of 'janata janardhan’ (public god) in Bengaluru. People gave me never-seen-before love and affection," Modi said at a public meeting here in Bagalkote district of poll-bound Karnataka, which votes on May 10.

People stood in every nook and corner of the road all along the 25 kilometres from where his convoy passed during the Bengaluru roadshow, the Prime Minister said.

Modi said people with their families, differently-abled persons, and women with their newborn children stood on either sides of the road.

"What I saw in Bengaluru, I say with confidence that this election is neither Modi contesting, nor BJP leaders or our candidates, it is the election the people of Karnataka are fighting on behalf of the BJP. I see the total control of the election in the hands of people,” the Prime Minister said.

He also said the BJP's "double engine" government has been working on bringing in development without discrimination.

"For the first time, the people of Bagalkote got three lakh tapped water connections. Over 25,000 people of Bagalkote got their own cement house. Ayushman Bharat scheme benefits reached the people of Bagalkote," Modi told the crowd.

Taking a swipe at former chief minister Siddaramaiah who was elected from Badami constituency in the district in the 2018 election, the Prime Minister said: "I have heard that Siddaramaiah is saying that whatever development has happened in the last 3.5 years was due to his government's efforts. His confessional statement is self-explanatory that if there is anyone who does the work then it is the double-engine government and does so without discrimination." It is the BJP government's work which has benefitted the people of this region, Modi said, adding, "highways are improving and railway projects are happening" as the party is governing both at the Centre and in the state.

"Siddaramaiah has left this place leaving you all (the former CM is contesting from Varuna seat this time). He has sensed which direction the wind is blowing. If he comes here by chance, ask him one question why people were deprived of basic infrastructure earlier," he said.

Hitting out at the Congress, Modi said the party has a "track record of 85 per cent commission" and they can never work to serve the people.

Modi said former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi had said on record that when one rupee "rolls" from Delhi, only 85 paise reaches the people.

"Whose claw was it that eats away 85 paise from one rupee? This was the Congress way of functioning. Due to the misdeeds of Congress, India lagged behind for so many decades," he said.

"The BJP used the trident of Aadhaar, mobile phone and Jan-Dhan account that their (Congress') old habits have completely destroyed," he pointed out.

Modi said in nine years, the BJP government transferred Rs 29 lakh crore into the bank accounts of poor and middle class families and the money reached people without a paisa being stolen.

If it was the Congress government, then the party leaders would have plundered Rs 24 lakh crore, he alleged.

The Prime Minister said India has become one of the largest mobile phone manufacturing nations. There was a time when India had only two cell phone making factories but now the country boasts of more than 200 factories, he added.

Explaining further, he said before 2014, when Congress was in power at the Centre, one gigabyte (GB) mobile internet data used to cost Rs 300 but with the BJP government at the helm, one GB data now costs only Rs 10.

"The amount of data you use a month, if the old rates existed in the Congress era, have you ever imagined how much bill you would have received? Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month," he claimed. P