Bengaluru, May 25 (IANS) Responding to the BJP’s protest against him in Kalaburagi—his native district—over his alleged highhandedness against Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, Chalawadi Narayanaswamy, Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge hit back at BJP leaders for singling him out.

Speaking to the media from the Congress headquarters in Bengaluru, Priyank Kharge said on Saturday, “If something like the ‘Republic of Kalaburagi’ actually existed, how did the BJP manage to stage protests there four times recently? They go to Kalaburagi and label it as the ‘Republic of Kalaburagi.’ Now, Narayanaswamy is crying before the people, claiming he’s being attacked. He called me a dog—how can he then portray himself as the victim?”

He further stated, “It was you who abused me first, and then got a backlash from the public. Now you’re protesting against me. I fail to understand the logic—who is the real victim here? The one who hurled abuse or the one who was abused?”

“When the BJP was in power, their leaders didn’t even look in Kalaburagi’s direction. Now they’ve protested there four times. Every time, the state BJP leadership chants, ‘Remove Priyank Kharge, Save Kalaburagi,’” he added.

“It is amusing that BJP leaders are now frequently visiting Kalaburagi when none of them came even once while they were in power,” Kharge reiterated. “Now they show up regularly, believing whatever the local BJP leaders tell them. They seem to have neither shame nor common sense.”

He also said, “In the past, all these BJP leaders came here to defend a man accused of stealing rice and baby milk powder. They claimed he was assaulted and even created drama about his car meeting with an accident. And now, they have given that same rice thief a party ticket,” he said, referring to BJP leader Manikanth Rathod.

“Chalawadi Narayanaswamy speaks with two tongues—he says one thing in Kalaburagi and another in Bengaluru. Here, he claims nothing happened to him; in Bengaluru, he claims he was attacked. He keeps shifting his narrative. That clearly shows his double standards,” Priyank charged.

Expressing surprise at BJP MLC C.T. Ravi, Priyank said, “Every time he visits Kalaburagi, all he talks about is the Nizams and Razakars. He has nothing beyond that. He repeatedly brings up Muslims and Pakistan. I have a suggestion—his masters in the RSS dream of building Akhand Bharat. Let him go to Pakistan, settle there, and begin fulfilling that dream.”

“I humbly submit to C.T. Ravi—there’s no use ranting about it here. Go to Pakistan, settle down, and turn the RSS’s Akhand Bharat dream into reality,” he challenged.

He also questioned Ravi’s conduct in a previous case involving Congress MLC Lakshmi Hebbalkar. “When the Hebbalkar case came up in the Legislative Council, why didn’t C.T. Ravi submit his voice sample? Why did he approach the Supreme Court to get a stay?” he asked.

“Let them lecture me—I don’t care. They call me the ‘Pappu of Karnataka’. I challenge BJP leaders to come debate me on any issue. Let’s find out who the real ‘Pappu’ is,” Kharge concluded.

Kalaburagi is the home district of AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and his son, Minister Priyank Kharge.

BJP leader Narayanaswamy had compared Priyank Kharge to a “dog,” after which Kharge’s supporters allegedly surrounded and detained him for five hours, demanding an apology. The BJP later staged a protest in Kalaburagi condemning the incident and demanding Priyank Kharge’s resignation.

–IANS

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