Mangalore: The daily political discourse in Karnataka has shifted from development to speculation over who will be the next chief minister, leading to a complete collapse of governance, alleged BJP Dakshina Kannada district president Sathish Kumpala on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, Kumpala said that after Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, G Parameshwara, and now Mallikarjun Kharge suggested they could be the next chief minister, discussions around a possible change in leadership have dominated public life.
"The Congress government has been in power for three years in the state. During these three years, there has been zero development. Daily trips to Delhi are made for power, but no work is being done to address people's sentiments. The ‘administration for the people' is a sham," he said.
On the chief minister's position, he alleged that "people are being treated to a free drama."
Kumpala claimed that the Congress government's guarantee schemes were not reaching people adequately. "Women are being harassed by not paying the Gruha Lakshmi funds on time. They promised free electricity, but increased the rates. Vidya Nidhi is not being provided, and government buses are not operating at full capacity. Guarantee schemes have become ineffective," he said.
Referring to recent by-elections, Kumpala alleged, "In the Davanagere and Bagalkot byelections, Muslims supported the Congress party, and as a result, Rs 600 crore were allocated to Muslims in the cabinet meeting. This proves that the Congress government is a government for one community." He further alleged that injustice had been done to the scheduled castes, the scheduled tribes, and the backward classes.
"Amidst appeasement politics, governance has completely collapsed," he said.
Kumpala also flagged administrative issues in the revenue department, alleging that server problems had brought work to a standstill. He said people were facing difficulties in paying house taxes and obtaining birth and death certificates.
"The government has shown no concern for the problems of the poor," he said.
He said land surveyors in Dakshina Kannada district have been on strike for the past 55 days, resulting in around 15,000 applications pending. "It's not possible to create 11E sketches. The land surveyor strike has made the problem serious, and even the district in-charge minister is not paying attention," he said, urging the government to take swift action to resolve issues affecting the common people.
MLC Kishore Kumar Puttur, BJP district general secretary Premananda Shetty, and others were present.
