Ayodhya issue getting life when elections are nearing: Siddaramaiah

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Friday said people of Karnataka would not support the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, even if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party national President Amit Shah reside in the state.

The Congress legislature party leader also hit out at the BJP by alleging that the saffron party wants the Ayodhya dispute to be alive and not Ram Mandir construction. "BJP has made coastal Karnataka as its laboratory for communalism, so BJP's national leaders are frequenting the coastal region.

Even if Amit Shah and Narendra Modi come to Karnataka and make their residence here, this time during Lok Sabha polls people of the state will not support BJP," Siddaramaiah tweeted in Kannada. Shah was in the coastal city of Mangaluru Wednesday and Thursday to attend the meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Siddaramaiah alleged that the saffron party wanted the Ayodhya dispute to be alive and not Ram Mandir construction. "The Ram janmabhoomi issue getting a life at the time when elections are nearing, is part of a larger attempt by the BJP to hold people emotionally towards them, and the people are aware of it," he said in another tweet. Siddaramaiah currently heads the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition's coordination committee in Karnataka.

(With inputs from agencies.)