Hyderabad : Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a huge public meeting today at Kolar on his second and final day of the campaign to poll-bound Karnataka on Sunday. Incidentally, Kolar happens to be the place that triggered a huge political storm on the country's national scene. It was from here in Kolar that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi made remarks on Modi's surname during his April 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign.
It's for the first time that PM Modi is going to address a public meeting at Kolar after Rahul Gandhi has been convicted in the Modi surname defamation case, disqualified as MP and evicted from his official building in Delhi. In his yesterday's election speeches, Modi mounted his attack on the Congress further, saying that the grand old party had abused his name over 91 times.
Since the days of Modi's ascension to national politics, Congress leaders have been making one remark or another on the personality of PM Modi but that has not deterred him from going on to win the country's prime ministerial position for the second consecutive time. In the beginning, Congress mocked Modi calling him 'chai walla' but now AICC president Kharge did not hesitate to call PM a 'poisonous snake' though he had later apologised and retracted the statement.
Of all the verbal attacks on Modi, the Kolar comment by Rahul Gandhi has proved to be indeed a flashpoint in the Congress-BJP clash. It led to the conviction of Rahul Gandhi on March 23 when he was given a two-year sentence by a court in Gujarat's Surat in the 2019 Modi surname case. Rahul's comment was - "why all thieves have the Modi surname".
Also Read : 'Its leaders have abused me 91 times': PM Modi slams Congress in poll-bound Karnataka
What looked like just yet another politically motivated defamation case filed by a Gujarat-based BJP MLA Purnesh Modi culminated in the nemesis for Rahul Gandhi, who was stripped of his MP seat. The Gandhi scion, who lost his family bastion Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in 2019 elections, lost even Kerala's Wayanad in 2023, a year ahead of the crucial 2024 elections - a do-or-die battle for the grand old party.
Modi held a roadshow in Bengaluru yesterday evening and, after staying overnight in the Karnataka capital, he will fly to Kolar to address an election meeting at 11.30 am. Later, the Prime Minister would fly to Channapatna in Ramanagara district and will address a public meeting there at 1.30 pm. Modi will also address a meeting at the temple town of Belur in Hassan district at 3.45 pm.
In the evening, the Prime Minister will hold a roadshow in Mysuru from where he would fly to Delhi by a special aircraft. The Karnataka Assembly Elections will be held on May 10 and results will be announced on May 13.
