Mangaluru : Captain Brijesh Chowta, Dakshina Kannada MP-elect, said on Monday that the Congress has begun to loot Karnataka by increasing sales tax on petrol and diesel by 3.92% and 4.1%, respectively. But the BJP will not allow it to continue, he added.

After participating in a protest, organised by the BJP against the hike in fuel prices in Mangaluru, Capt. Chowta posted on X that after depleting the State coffers, the Congress government now wants to empty people’s pockets too. “…We wont’t let them make Karnataka pay for their unscientific schemes and visionless governance…”

The protest by the BJP workers was also against the Congress government’s arrogant and pointless defence of hiking the sales tax, he said.

The State government hiked the sales tax on Saturday, making both pertrol and diesel costlier by about Rs.3. As part of their protest, the workers pulled a four-wheeler from the BJP’s district office at P.V.S. junction to a petrol bunk at Rashtrakavi Manjeshwara Govinda Pai Circle. Some women workers also pushed their two-wheelers with it.

Holding ‘chembus’, D. Vedavyasa Kamath, Mangaluru City South MLA, and Satish Kumpala, president of the Dakshina Kannada unit of the BJP, collected money from the workers, and filled them with petrol and poured it into a vehicle. They also poured some petrol on coconut shells.

The workers also shouted slogans against the Congress government.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Kumpala said that the Congress government had imposed a burden on the public by increasing the sales tax. The government has no money after diverting huge amounts for its guarantee schemes. Hence, the increase in the tax, he said.

Mayor Sudheer Shetty Kannur, MLC Pratapsimha Nayak, MLA Harish Poonja, and former MLC Capatin Ganesh Karnik took part in the protest.