Siddaramaiah urges women not to vote for party in alliance with those abusing women

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah released a letter on Monday evening addressed to women voters, urging them not to vote for the BJP saying the saffron party had joined hands with those “abusing women.” The CM was referring to the JDS as its senior leaders HD Revanna and Hassan NDA candidate Prajwal Revanna are fighting allegations of sexual abuse of women. The JDS is an ally of the NDA.

Siddaramaiah’s letter came on the eve of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka scheduled to face polls on Tuesday. The first batch of 14 seats went to polls on April 26, and this included the three seats the JDS contested from.

The CM reminded them of the pro-women programmes of his government including Gruhalakshmi providing for monthly transfer of Rs 2000 and Shakti scheme facilitating free bus rides for women and said the BJP had been critical of them since the day his regime launched them.

Siddaramaiah also referred to JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy’s critical comments on the Shakti scheme, though he regretted his remarks.

The CM accused the BJP of being anti-women’s development, and said if the Congress was voted to power, it would give Rs 1 lakh in cash to women heads of poor families and reserve half the jobs for women in all government jobs, among other things.