Udupi: Raj Babbar, MP and Congress leader, said on Tuesday that the election in Karnataka has become a battle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the State unit of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered from leadership vacuum.

He was speaking at an election campaign meeting of the Congress here. Hiriyadka is part of the Kaup Assembly constituency.

Mr. Babbar said that lack of leadership in State BJP had forced Mr. Modi to address as many campaign meetings as possible. “The very fact that the BJP has been forced to bring in Mr. Modi to address these many campaign meetings convinces me that it has already sensed a defeat here,” he said.

Mr. Babbar said that Mr. Modi had described himself as “chowkidar” or watchman. But scamsters such as Lalit Modi, Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi had managed to commit financial scams in the country and flee. “This is a strange ‘chowkidar’ who never uses his baton. He is content to let thieves flee,” he said.

Even when big events take place such as atrocities against Dalits and rape of women, Mr. Narendra Modi hardly speaks about it. “Mr. Modi speaks only in foreign countries. There too, he speaks against the Congress,” he said.

Mr. Babbar said that there was no point in Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath campaigning in Karnataka, when the state of affairs in Uttar Pradesh was bad. Nearly 150 children had died owing to lack of medical facilities at a hospital in Gorakhpur.

In the recently concluded bypoll to Gorakhpur Parliamentary constituency, which the BJP lost, the votes polled in a polling booth near Mr. Adityanath’s Mutt for the Samajwadi Party candidates was thrice more than that of the BJP candidate, he said.

The Congress has given programmes such as Anna Bhagya and Ksheera Bhagya to the people of the State. It has provided diesel subsidy to the fishermen community here, Mr. Babbar said.