In veiled dig at Congress, Bommai says there were attempts to forget Ambedkar, Shastri
Bengaluru (PTI): Amid controversy over excluding first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the Karnataka government's newspaper advertisement on freedom fighters, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday took a veiled dig at the Congress without naming it as he pointed at attempts to "forget" national icons like B R Ambedkar and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
In his address at the 76th Independence Day event at the Manekshaw Parade Ground here, he also said that all Prime Ministers and leaders of the country have contributed to India's progress in their own way, and there is no question of forgetting anyone.
"First Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, then Lal Bahadur Shastri and several Prime Ministers have ruled this country, all of them have contributed in their own way for the nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a Prime Ministers' Museum in New Delhi to highlight each one's contribution," Bommai said without directly referring to the controversy.
"If any Prime Minister had thought about making known the contributions of various PMs to the country it is Narendra Modi. There is no question of forgetting anyone here. Everyone has contributed in their own way. Only PMs have not contributed, there are several luminaries who have contributed," he said.
Highlighting the importance of Ambedkar and the Constitution prepared under his leadership, he said, "There were attempts to forget him. Should we forget Lal Bahadur Shastri who gave the call 'Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan' or Abdul Ghaffar Khan? Several people have sacrificed for the freedom struggle. I pay my tributes to them," he said.
The Congress on Sunday took strong exception to the exclusion of Nehru in the newspaper advertisement on freedom fighters and termed the BJP government's action "pathetic".
Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah had called Bommai an "RSS slave", while AICC general secretary and in-charge of the party affairs in the state Randeep Surjewala had said the BJP's hatred for the country's first prime minister had reached its zenith.
State BJP General Secretary N Ravi Kumar, however, had said Nehru's name was omitted "intentionally", as he was responsible for the partition of the country.
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Delhi polls: BJP releases second list of 29 candidates, features ex-CM's son, Kapil Mishra
New Delhi, Jan 11: The BJP on Saturday released its second list featuring 29 candidates for the Delhi Assembly polls, fielding Kapil Mishra, a former AAP leader now identified with hardline Hindutva politics, from Karawal Nagar.
It has fielded Harish Khurana, son of former Delhi chief minister Madan Lal Khurana, from the Moti Nagar constituency.
With the latest announcement, the party has so far named candidates for 58 seats of the 70-member Delhi Assembly.
The elections are scheduled to be held on February 5 and the votes will be counted on February 8.
Mishra, who replaced sitting party MLA Mohan Singh Bisht, made several speeches, denounced as inflammatory by rival parties, just before communal riots broke out in northeast Delhi in February 2020.
Sitting BJP MLA from Laxmi Nagar seat Abhay Verma will seek reelection from the same seat. He won the constituency in 2020 with a narrow margin of just over 800 votes.
Both Mishra and Verma are Purvanchalis. Two other candidates, Bajrang Shukla from Kirari and Pankaj Singh from Vikaspuri, also belong to the same community.
Delhi BJP's Mandir Prakoshth (temple cell) chief Karnail Singh is the party's candidate against sitting AAP MLA and former minister Satyendar Jain at Shakoor Basti seat.
Former Kasturba Nagar MLA Neeraj Basoya, who recently defected to the BJP from Congress, was fielded from the same seat.
Former Delhi BJP general secretary (organisation) Pawan Sharma will contest Uttam Nagar seat that he won in 2013.
Deepti Indora, Matia Mahal, Urmila Kailash Gangwar, Madipur (SC), Shweta Saini, Tilak Nagar, Priyanka Gautam, Kondli (SC), and Neelam Pahalwan from Najafgarh are the party's women candidates so far.
The list features four former MLAs and eight sitting municipal councilors.
Former mayor Shyam Sharma was fielded from the Hari Nagar seat which has a significant number of Sikh voters.
Tickets on remaining 12 tickets will likely be announced soon after discussions on seats like Delhi Cantt, Greater Kailash and Shahdara.
Party sources said former Union minister Meenakshi Lekhi was considered for the Greater Kailash seat, although she was interested in contesting from Delhi Cantt.
भाजपा की केन्द्रीय चुनाव समिति ने दिल्ली में होने वाले विधानसभा चुनाव 2025 के लिए निम्नलिखित नामों पर अपनी स्वीकृति प्रदान की है। pic.twitter.com/STdMQZZ2VM
— BJP (@BJP4India) January 11, 2025
