Deve Gowda slams Rahul over wealth redistribution promise

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda on Wednesday slammed Rahul Gandhi's "wealth redistribution promise", stating that only someone with no practical knowledge can speak like that.

The 90-year-old JD(S) supremo ridiculed the Congress manifesto claiming that only a party that is sure of never coming to power can make as many promises.

“The Congress has promised so many things in its manifesto. The only party that is very sure of never coming to power will promise so much,” Gowda said at a press conference here.

He said the Congress wants to turn this country "upside down" and the promises made by it indicated that it wants to come to power "at any cost".

“Rahul Gandhi wants to do a wealth survey and distribute the wealth. Does he think he is a mass leader,” Deve Gowda said.

“He is dreaming of a revolution. By talking about wealth redistribution, Rahul Gandhi has insulted and humiliated two Congress Prime Ministers who brought market reforms and increased the wealth of the nation,” he added, recalling the contribution of P V Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh in economic liberalisation.

I-T sleuths raiding Cong functionary's house to defame me: DKS

Kanakapura: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said the Income Tax sleuths were raiding the houses of Congress block presidents to defame him and to obstruct them from election campaigning.

“The IT department is conducting raids on Congress party workers deliberately in order to prevent them from election campaigning,” he said in a statement. Seeking to know whether BJP and JD(S) candidates were not distributing money, Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, asked why there were no raids on them. The IT department is ready with a list of people to target and they are going by that, he claimed.

“They (I-T sleuths) are specifically targeting the Bengaluru Rural district fearing election loss,” he added.

Meanwhile, Congress workers staged a protest against I-T raids on Congress MP D K Suresh's close associate here on Wednesday.

Yediyurappa challenges Cong to name PM candidate

Tumakuru: Veteran BJP leader B S Yediyurappa on Wednesday challenged the Congress to name its prime ministerial candidate and reveal the names of at least three to four constituencies in Karnataka where they will win in the Lok Sabha elections.

He also asserted that his party along with alliance partner JD(S) will be victorious in all the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.

Yediyurappa, member of BJP's Parliamentary Board and former Chief Minister, was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the campaign for party candidate from Tumkur V Somanna.

""My question to Congress is -- name your prime ministerial candidate, and secondly say the name of three to four constituencies where you will win. They are unable to reveal it so far. Defeat is certain for them. We (BJP-JD(S)) will win all the 28 seats," he added.