Karnataka polls: PM Modi insulting state by trying to take 'looters' to Assembly, says Rahul

Congress President Rahul Gandhi slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "insulting" Karnataka by trying to take "those who looted the state to its assembly". "When in power, Yeddyurappa and Reddy Brothers looted Karnataka. Our Govt. brought them to justice. Now Mr Modi is trying to take 8 of them from jail, into the Vidhan Sabha.

This is an insult to every honest citizen, to Karnataka and to the spirit of Basavanna," Gandhi wrote on Twitter. On Tuesday, Congress media in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala in Bengaluru had taunted the Modi government for letting off the infamous Reddy mining brothers. "The Modi government has become the benefactor, protector, defender of the Bellary gang for denuding Kannadigas of their rich natural resources through its puppet CBI," he had told reporters in Bengaluru.

Accusing the BJP of betraying Kannadigas and protecting the Reddy brothers, Surjewala had added that iron ore valued at Rs 35,000 crore was mined, extracted and sold to domestic and export markets illegally, as revealed in the probe report. Yeddyurappa is the BJP's chief ministerial face in Karnataka, and the party has decided to field the Reddy brothers, Somashekara and Karunakara, who have been accused of corruption by political opponents. In 2016, Karnataka BJP chief Yeddyurappa and nine others were acquitted by a CBI court in the illegal mining kickback case which had cost him his chief ministership in 2011. Karnataka goes to polls on May 12 and the results will be declared on May 15.