Dissolve Assembly, go to elections: Cong's DK Shivakumar challenges K'taka BJP govt

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 25 : Karnataka Congress unit President DK Shivakumar on Sunday slammed the state government for its management of floods and COVID-19, and challenged them to dissolve the assembly and go to elections.
He asked why Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had visited flood-affected West Bengal earlier, has not come to Karnataka.
"People are struggling to save their lives due to flood and COVID. The government has failed to save them. Dissolve this assembly and go to people and get a fresh mandate. Let us see who will form a new government," Shivakumar told reporters here.
"The state has been continuously hit by floods for the past three years. From our party under the leadership of R V Deshpande and Satish Jarakiholi, teams have gone and inspected the flood-affected regions. Belagavi has more than ten MLAs from your own party, even then you couldn't visit the flood-hit areas last year, why?" he asked.
His remarks came while there are speculations of change of leadership in the state.
The Karnataka Congress chief also alleged that the Central government is discriminating against the state.
"Previously when West Bengal and other states were flood-affected, the Prime minister himself visited there. But why didn't he come to Karnataka? Why wasn't proper compensation given to Karnataka? Why is the Centre doing this discrimination? Why aren't the BJP MPs putting pressure on the Centre?"
The Congress leader further lauded party workers' work during the pandemic and said that they had done what the government could not do.
"During COVID, Congress party-workers observed everything. We served people and took good decisions during the first wave. We stood as a helping hand to the migrant labourers and farmers. People have observed us purchasing the crops from the farmers in this period," he said.