Bengaluru: As the campaigning for Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 is about to get into full swing, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to aggressively launch Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign today to add heft to the party’s efforts to unseat the Congress from power. But the war of words has already got nasty. The Karnataka wing BJP on Monday filed a complaint against Independent MLA Jignesh Mevani and actor Prakash Raj with the Chief Electoral Officer for ‘having used defamatory and abusive language’ against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Party’s chief ministerial candidate BS Yeddyurappa.
In the complaint letter, the BJP accused Mevani of calling Prime Minister Modi “a corporate salesman and a thief”.
“Jignesh Mevani in his speech at an event on April 29 in Bengaluru called our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi a corporate salesman and a thief who has looted the country,” the letter read.
The letter further accused Mevani and actor Prakash Raj of making relentless attempts towards jeopardising Prime Minister Modi’s and Yeddyurappa’s image.
The complaint also sought an action against senior politician AK Subbaiah who had said that Yeddyurappa would runaway once polls results are out.
In the letter the BJP urged the election watchdog to further not grant any permission to either Mevani or Raj to hold any indoor or outdoor meeting in Karnataka till the polls are over.
Karnataka will go to polls on May 12 and the results will be out on May 15.
Modi, who last visited Karnataka for campaigning in” February, will be addressing rallies at Santhemarahalli in” Chamarajanagara district, and Udupi and Chikkodi in Belagavi” today.
Modi is expected to address a dozen rallies across five days in a campaign blitz that will begin in the Cauvery heartland of Chamarajanagar in southern Karnataka.