Mangaluru: Former Union Minister and Bollywood superstar Shatrugan Sinha on Sunday visited Mangaluru’s Mudipu and addressed a public rally while campaigning for Dakshina Kannada Congress candidate for LS Election Mithun Rai.

Sinha made scattering attacks on BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning their governance and silence over key issues of the nation. The former BJP MP was also in the awe of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and termed him as the ‘face of today and future of the country’.

Speaking about the reason behind his decision to leave BJP where he had been in the mix of the things for several years Sinha said “I left BJP because I have always believed in secularism. I have given so many years of my life to BJP, but since this government was formed the party has turned into ‘one man show and two men army’ it has become dictator’s party. People like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Arun Shourie, Yashwant Sinha and Kirti Azad who took the party to new heights are nowhere to be seen now in the party”

“Demonetisation was wrongly implemented, lakhs of people suffered for one bad decision. And then they introduce complicated GST before the nation could recover from demonetization. That was the double blow to the whole of nation. And that’s when I confronted them in the interest of the people of the country. I told them ‘Khamosh, ye tumne galat kiya hai’ (Whatever you have done is wrong).

“They also started threatening me to dispel me from the party as I have always been taking stands against what was wrong irrespective of who was doing it. For me party is more important than any individual and my country is more important than any party. So when I started taking stands against the wrong they were doing, it didn’t go down too well with them. That’s when I decided to bid goodbye to the party”.

Speaking of Congress Sinha added that there was no other party with more contributions to the country than Congress including its role in the freedom movement of the country and that is the reason he joined the grand old party.

Taking a dig at Modi wave and BJP’s 2014 election victory he said “What happened with these people is as they say ‘Power corrupts you and absolute power corrupts you absolutely’ so when they got into power, I don’t want to speak on how they got it. It might be with the help of EVM or something else. So when they came into power they decided to become dictators”.

Sinha also credited Congress’ election wins in MP, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh to the leadership skills of Rahul Gandhi.

“Within a year of taking charge as the president of INC Rahul Gandhi has displayed his leadership skills and shown to the opposition what he is capable of. He is the face of today and future of this country” he added.

Attacking Modi over Rafale deal, Sinha questioned his silence and reminded him that he was accountable to the people of this country and every single question by them has to be answered.

“I don’t say you are accused or involve in this scam or whether this is a scam or not. But there are questions and you need to answer them. Unless you answer them people will keep saying what Rahul Gandhi and others are saying that ‘Chowkidar chor hai’”.

Speaking of Mithun Rai, Sinha said his victory was the need of the hour for the development of Dakshina Kannada and the Country at large.

“It is important that Mithun Rai wins from here. This is young India and the youth can bring in a change. Under the young leadership of Rahul Gandhi, these leaders will be groomed and will take India to unprecedented heights. I am confident the youth of Dakshina Kannada will make the right decision and elect Mithun Rai” he concluded.

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New Delhi (PTI): The Election Commission on Saturday asserted that all poll procedures it followed in Maharashtra were transparent and assured that it would review all legitimate concerns flagged by the Congress, which alleged serious inconsistencies.

In its interim response to the party, the poll authority invited a Congress delegation on December 3 to discuss concerns expressed by it.

The Congress on Friday raised with the Election Commission "serious and grave inconsistencies" which it said were being revealed in the data relating to the polling and counting processes for the recently-concluded Maharashtra Assembly polls and sought an in-person hearing to present relevant evidence.

In the response, the EC reiterated that the process was transparent with the involvement of candidates or their agents at every stage.

The commission also assured of a review of the Congress' legitimate concerns and a written response after hearing the party's delegation in person.

It asserted that a transparent electoral roll updation process was undertaken with the involvement of all political parties.

Responding to the issue regarding the voter turnout data, the EC asserted that there was no discrepancy in it and the data was available with all candidates polling station-wise and is verifiable.

The gap in the 5 pm polling data and the final voter turnout was due to procedural priorities, as presiding officers perform multiple statutory duties near the close of polling before updating the voter turnout data.

As an additional disclosure measure, an EC press note at around 11:45 pm was introduced during the 2024 Lok Sabha election and followed subsequently during all assembly polls thereafter, the poll body told the Congress.