CM Siddaramaiah defends son's controversial statement against Amit Shah
Mysuru, Apr 1: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday defended his son Yathindra's statement targeting Amit Shah, which the BJP has termed as reprehensible and a personal attack on the Union Home Minister and lodged a complaint with the Election Commission.
Siddaramaiah said his son never intended to insult Shah and his statement was based on CBI's submission in the court.
Addressing a party meeting in Hanur town of Chamarajanagar district last Thursday, Yathindra, a former MLA, allegedly said: "Home Minister Amit Shah is a goonda, rowdy, there was a murder charge against him in Gujarat and he was exiled, and (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi did politics keeping such people next to him....".
A day later, the Karnataka unit of the BJP filed a complaint with the poll body describing the statement as a personal attack on the party leader and alleged that Yathindra had used "abusive and inflammatory language" against Shah. It said the statement violated provisions of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).
ALSO READ: BJP complains to poll officials on political activities in offices of K'taka Ministers, MLAs
Speaking to reporters here, Siddaramaiah said: “Yathindra has given a statement based on the CBI report in the court. Is the CBI report to the court right or wrong? Based on the CBI’s submission to the court he has said it. He has no intention to insult Amit Shah."
The BJP also alleged Yathindra’s statement reflected his upbringing. Responding to this, Siddaramaiah said it is the BJP which does not know "Samskara" (culture).
On BJP’s claim of winning 400 seats across the country in the coming Lok Sabha elections, the Chief Minister said: “You know why (BJP is saying this), because they will get less than 200 seats. They have done a survey. Their tally is less than 200, so they are strategically saying ‘400’ (seats).”
Asked how many seats that the Congress will win nationally, Siddaramaiah said he has no information about his party’s target, but he is confident that the outfit would bag up to 20 seats out of the total 28 in the State.
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Confident we are going to win Kerala: Shashi Tharoor
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Thursday expressed confidence in the victory of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in Kerala, saying the Congress-led alliance will win more than 75 seats out of the total 140 in the state.
Tharoor, who hails from Kerala, said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls, most of which predicted a victory for the UDF that has been out of power for 10 years in the state.
"We have been on the ground. I have campaigned in 59 constituencies across 12 districts out of 14. I was very confident we are going to win.
"Everything that I have picked up from not just my party colleagues and workers but also from other observers, media and others have always convinced me that we were going to score a comfortable win of above 75 seats. And all the (exit) polls have confirmed the same thing," he told reporters here.
The Thiruvananthapuram MP said he was not surprised to see the results of the exit polls but in general he was not a big fan of exit polls in India.
"Because ours is not purely a homogenous society. We have to take into account gender issue, caste issue, class issue, regional disparities. You never get a convincingly large enough sample to give an accurate poll and now there is the additional complication that we have heard about in West Bengal this year that many people are unwilling to answer the questions of the pollsters," he said.
The Congress leader said normally, it used to be below 10 per cent that people said that they would not answer.
"Even if you are a reputable exit pollster, in Bengal, one polling company has said 60 per cent of people refused to answer. So, what is the worth of a poll where 60 per cent of your respondents have not answered," he said.
Several exit polls on Wednesday predicted a comeback by the Congress-led UDF in Kerala after 10 years, dethroning the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF).
Polling for the 140-member Kerala assembly was held on April 9. Results of assembly elections in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Puducherry, besides Kerala, will be announced on May 4.
