Karnataka polls: Amit Shah asks Congress not to involve 'foreign nations' in domestic politics

Voting for Karnataka Assembly polls is on May 12 and results will be announced on May 15.

Pic courtesy: Twitter/@AmitShah (File photo)

New Delhi: BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday asked the Congress not to involve foreign nations in India's domestic politics. At the same time, he wondered as to why the party involved Pakistan in such matters.

"The Congress and Pakistan have amazing telepathy. Yesterday, Pakistan government remembered Tipu Sultan, whose jayanti (birth anniversary) the Congress marks with fanfare and today Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar admires Jinnah. Be it Gujarat or Karnataka polls, I fail to understand why Congress involves Pakistan," he tweeted.

The BJP chief also referred to a meeting of Congress leaders with Pakistani officials during the Gujarat polls in 2017.

"During Gujarat elections, we saw how dinner meetings with topmost Pakistan officials were held to defeat the BJP and now the mutual love for Tipu Sultan and Jinnah. I appeal to the Congress not to involve foreign nations in our domestic politics. Let's keep the discourse civil and positive," he said in another tweet.

The Congress had then rejected the BJP's charge, voiced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi among others and had accused it of deliberately bringing Pakistan into the election discourse to polarise voters.

During Gujarat elections we saw how dinner meetings with topmost Pakistan officials were held to defeat BJP and now mutual love for Tipu Sultan and Jinnah.

I appeal to Congress not to involve foreign nations in our domestic politics. Let’s keep the discourse civil and positive. — Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 5, 2018

I thank people of Narasimharaja and Chamaraja assembly constituency of Mysore district for their massive support during the roadshow. #CongressMuktKarnataka pic.twitter.com/j1iueEVtrB — Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 5, 2018

Amazing support to BJP across Karnataka, people are all set to dethrone the corrupt Siddaramaiah government. Sharing pictures from the road show in Krishnaraja assembly constituency, Mysore. pic.twitter.com/CaQ5pgVk6B — Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 5, 2018

Meanwhile, escalating his attack on the Congress over "corruption and arrogance", PM Modi said on Saturday that the party whose flag once fluttered "from Panchayat to Parliament" will become "Punjab, Puducherry, Parivar" Congress after its impending defeat in Karnataka.

With the D-day for the polls drawing closer, he upped the ante against the Siddaramaiah government, alleging it has become a "corruption tank" for the Congress with a pipeline connected to Delhi, "where the money reaches directly". PM Modi also accused the top Congress leadership of auctioning tickets, party positions and even the CM's post.

"After May 15 (when poll results will be declared), Indian National Congress will be reduced to 'PPP Congress' - P for Punjab, P for Puducherry, and P for Parivar (family)," he told an election rally in Gadag, where he predicted the state's ruling party would be decimated in the elections.

PM Modi further said that despite a string of electoral losses in Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, and Tripura the Congress was not as worried as it is now when defeat stares it in the face.

"I tell you why... Because their ministers and leaders in Karnataka have built a tank here. A part of money looted from people is taken home and the rest is put in that tank. The tank is linked to Delhi through a pipeline which carries the money directly to Delhi," he said.

PM Modi, who addressed four back to back rallies at Gadag, Tumakuru, Shivamogga and Mangaluru, said it was because of Congress's arrogance that the party, which ruled almost the entire country, was losing ground.

In Mangaluru, he said opposing him was the Congress's only agenda. "They even opposed my Clean India campaign. They mock all institutions... The RBI, Indian Army, Parliament... It is yet to recover from the shock of demonetisation as bundles of ill-gotten currency notes of its leaders were seized... Their anger does not go away," PM Modi said.

(With PTI inputs)