Udupi: Sambit Patra, national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said on Friday that the manifesto of the Congress released by All India Congress Committee (AICC) president Rahul Gandhi in Mangaluru did not speak of a single achievement of the Siddaramaiah government in the last five years.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Patra said that Mr. Gandhi spent most of the time speaking about the BJP during the release of the manifesto as the Siddaramaiah government had no achievement to boast of. “It is a ‘No mission, no vision, only commission’ manifesto. The Congress and Mr. Gandhi have treated Karnataka as an ATM machine. The entries made by the personal secretary of Mr. Siddaramaiah in his dairy itself were a big give away,” he said.

Mr. Patra said that the Congress had only achieved 5 % of the promises made in the last manifesto five years ago. Of the 18 main promises made, 10 had not even got off the ground. The work on the irrigation project in the Krishna Basin had hardly progressed. As many as 3,781 farmers had committed suicide in the last five years.

He said that Mr. Gandhi had stated that the manifesto was “Man Ki Baat” (talk from the mind) of people. Mr. Gandhi could not coin original phrases and was borrowing phrases from Mr. Modi and BJP. “Instead of ‘Man Ki Baat’, Mr. Gandhi should speak of ‘Hisaab Ki Baat’ and give an account (“hisaab”) of the performance of the Siddaramaiah government. Mr. Modi spoke of new Karnataka, now Mr. Gandhi speaks of ‘Nava Karnataka’. You cannot give good governance, at least stop stealing ideas and phrases,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi spoke about the 12th Century saint and social reformer Basaveshwara’s words “Nudidanthe Nade”. He should realise that the BJP was following it for the last four years with its inclusive slogan of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas”, he said.

Mr. Patra alleged that Mr. Gandhi had to be prompted to stand up when the national song “Vande Mataram” was being sung at one of his rallies and this had been telecast on a Kannada news channel. While Mr. Gandhi had little or no time for the national song, he had some time ago, joined a meeting of separatist student crowd in Delhi, he said.

Mr. Patra said that Mr. Modi’s agenda was development, faster development and all-round development. The confidence level in the Congress in the State was low. Hence, Mr. Siddaramaiah was contesting in two constituencies. “Mr. Siddaramaiah will lose in both the places and become irrelevant in Karnataka politics,” he said.