Bhatkal, April 26: In a scathing attack, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to clarify why the BJP gave tickets to Karnataka's tainted Reddy brothers to contest in the May 12 assembly elections.
"Modi, who talks about fighting corruption, must explain to the people why he is supporting the corrupt Reddy brothers by giving ticket to contest in the state assembly polls," said Gandhi at a public meeting in this coastal town.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) selected G. Karunakara Reddy and G. Somashekar Reddy, elder and younger brothers of the mining scam-tainted G. Janardhan Reddy, to contest from Harpanahalli and Ballari seats in the Ballari district.
The party has also fielded Lallesh Reddy, nephew of the Reddy brothers, from the BTM Layout segment in Bengaluru against state Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy of the ruling Congress.
Accusing Modi of allegedly changing the country's premier investigation agency CBI to "Central Bureau of Illegal Mining", Gandhi charged the Prime Minister with supporting the Reddy family in the state.
"We want the people of Karnataka to be a part of the government and not of the Reddy brothers. Why is Modi supporting and protecting the corrupt? We will never allow them to loot the state," he said.
Janardhan Reddy was arrested and jailed for about two years after the state's Lokayukta named him in the multi-crore iron ore mining scam in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for about a decade (2001-10).
Gandhi also accused Modi of allegedly writing off the loans of rich industrialists but being indifferent to farmers.
"When I had asked Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to help farmers, he immediately waived off Rs 8,000 crore worth of loans," he added.
Gandhi, who is on a two-day visit to the poll-bound southern state starting Thursday, launched the ruling party's campaign for the elections in the coastal region.
He will release the party's election manifesto in the port city of Mangaluru on Friday, along with senior leaders like Karnataka in-charge K.C. Venugopal and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
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SWR announces special trains for passengers stranded by large-scale IndiGo cancellations
Bengaluru (PTI): The South Western Railway on Saturday announced a series of special trains, in coordination with Central, South Eastern and Southern Railways, to clear stranded passengers following large-scale IndiGo flight cancellations across the country.
The special services will operate between December 6 and 10 on high-demand routes, including Bengaluru–Chennai, Bengaluru–Pune, Yesvantpur–Hazrat Nizamuddin, Shalimar–Yelahanka and Ernakulam–Yelahanka, officials said.
According to an official statement, SWR will run Train No. 06255/06256 between Chennai Egmore and KSR Bengaluru, 06257/06258 between Bengaluru and MGR Chennai Central, 06259/06260 between Yesvantpur and Hazrat Nizamuddin, and 06263/06264 between Bengaluru and Pune.
ALSO READ: Indigo flights chaos: SCR to run special trains to clear passenger rush
Central Railway will operate Train No. 01413/01414 between Pune and Bengaluru, while South Eastern Railway will run Train No. 08073/08074 between Shalimar and Yelahanka. Southern Railway will operate Train No. 06147/06148 between Ernakulam and Yelahanka, the statement said.
Railways has advised passengers to check updated timings on its official channels and arrive early at stations.
For at least five days in a row, IndiGo flight operations have been significantly disrupted, with a large number of cancellations and delays causing hardships to thousands of passengers. In many cases, baggage has been misplaced.
