Siddaramaiah making discordant remarks about delimitation to cover up failures: Basavaraj Bommai

Hubballi, Feb 28 (IANS) BJP MP Basavaraj Bommai on Friday slammed Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for criticising the delimitation proposal by the Centre, saying the latter was doing so to "cover up his own mistakes". 

Speaking to the media in Hubballi, former Chief Minister Bommai said it is unfortunate that he is politicising the issue which is not good for Karnataka.

"Constituency delimitation requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament; it cannot happen overnight. There is a constitutionally mandated committee for this, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already assured Parliament that no state will be treated unfairly. Yet, Siddaramaiah is searching for faults to cover up his failures and is unnecessarily blaming the central government. Unfortunately, he is politicising the matter as a CM, which is not good for the state," Bommai said.

Drawing a sharp contrast between the Congress and the UPA regime, Bommai said: "A nation develops only when its people develop. During the Congress' tenure, the pockets of those in power were full, while the people's pockets were empty. Since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister, 25 crore people have risen above the poverty line."

"During the Congress rule, very few people paid an income tax of Rs 1 crore. Now, four lakh people are paying Rs 1 crore in income tax. Indians and even foreigners can see that India is developing. No other country is experiencing GDP growth of 6.5 per cent like India," Bommai stated.

Bommai alleges that Karnataka was on the verge of bankruptcy, and no developmental work is happening in the state.

He claimed that the funds allocated for SCs and STs have been misused.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that discussions are already underway with neighbouring southern states to wage a comprehensive fight against the "injustices" of the proposed delimitation process by the Union government and in the coming days, a coordinated movement will be launched in collaboration with all affected states.

In a statement, Siddaramaiah stated that Union Home Minister Amit Shah's claim that southern states will not be disadvantaged in the delimitation process is "not trustworthy". His statement rather appears to be aimed at creating confusion in the southern states.

He noted that several studies have been conducted on the impact of delimitation, and according to these, if delimitation is based solely on the latest census (2021 or 2031), the number of Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka is likely to decrease from 28 to 26. Similarly, Andhra Pradesh's seats would drop from 42 to 34, Kerala’s from 20 to 12, and Tamil Nadu's from 39 to 31.