MVA plans to felicitate next Karnataka CM during 'Vajramuth' rally

Mumbai, May 15 (IANS) The Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) plans to invite the next Chief Minister of Karnataka and felicitate him during one of its upcoming combined 'Vajramuth' rallies in the state, alliance partner NCP said here on Monday.

"Karnataka has shown the way by rejecting the Bharatiya Janata Party outright and voting for secularism. The same trend will continue in other states which are going to polls later this year," said Nationalist Congress Party chief spokesperson Mahesh Tapase.

He said that despite an extensive campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other top BJP leaders, the party faced huge embarrassment as it was cut to size by nearly 50 per cent of its seats in the recent Assembly elections.

"The PM's pleas have cut no ice with the electorate. This should be interpreted as his falling image. The people of Karnataka are fed up with corruption and communalism, so they have shown the door to the BJP," Tapase argued.

He said that the MVA alliance of Congress, Shiv Sena-UBT, and NCP will also campaign extensively through its 'Vajramuth' rallies and in the pre-election campaigns and expose the current government of Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis.

On Sunday, top MVA leaders met and discussed the state political issues and also resolved to contest all future elections unitedly.

Slamming the Centre for misusing central investigating agencies, Tapase said that now they targeting state NCP President Jayant Patil but its tactics will not yield much and will actually boomerang on the BJP in the next elections.

On the CBI booking former Mumbai Zonal Director of Narcotics Control Bureau Sameer Wankhede in an alleged corruption case, Tapase asked: "Why are all the BJP leaders now keeping mum on this matter now? Several of them were singing Wankhede's praises last year, but they are maintaining a stoic silence."

The reference was to many state BJP leaders shielding Wankhede from the string of sensational allegations hurled by ex-NCP minister Nawab Malik - currently in jail since over 15 months - through his series of media briefings, in late 2021-early 2022.