Tipu or Rani Abbakka? Choose…Amit Shah dares voters

Puttur: This farming town got a shock when Home minister Amit Shah today openly asked the people to choose between those who follow Tipu Sultan or those who follow Rani Abbakka. Over 30,000 people who gathered to hear him out on the cooperative moves his party may take, were in the weekend mood, their weekend mood turned into a war cry when Shah asked to take a stand.

Shah said, "will you support those who admire Tipu Sultan or you support Rani Abbakka - you have to take a stand today and those who follow give me a shout…" Then there was a big roar among the crowd seemingly approving his demarcation.

It was never to be an occasion for blowing the poll bugle. It was a supposed to be a happy occasion to celebrate the golden jubilee of the multi state Arecanut Co-operative - Central Arecanut Marketing and Cocoa Processing Cooperative limited (CAMPCO) in Puttur. The crowd was expecting some sops from the central government of which he also held the portfolio of co-operation specially appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He let all the sops to be announced by Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai and he devoted his 20 minutes speech to soft-pedalling the political overtones.

As a minister for Cooperation Shah had also done the same theatrics in Mandya in January when he spoke of merging the state milk federation with Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) of his own state. Striking another similar connection, this time with Arecanut he said "the Arecanut that is produced by the Puttur growers are close to the heart of Areca consumers of Gujarat and we must soon forge an alliance between Karnataka and Gujarat to better the prospects of Areca growers, traders and consumers".

After alighting from the Helicopter he drove to the Hanumagiri temple and witnessed a pooja and offered his contributions to the temple. He was accompanied by the state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and local leaders.