Bengaluru: Maintaining that Prime Minister Modi had failed to visit the State even once when it reeled under natural calamities for three consecutive years, Opposition Leader and former Chief Minister Siddharamaiah accused Modi of opportunistic politics as he visited Karnataka now with an eye on next year’s Assembly polls.

Addressing a press meet here on Monday, Siddharamaiah charged Modi of not having any concerns for people of State who were badly hit by floods, landslides and other natural disasters.

Claiming that four of the five  Public Sector Banks having roots in Karnataka were merged with  loss-making Public Sector Banks of other States only for the sake of overcoming their losses and nothing else, he alleged that this move of the Centre is a great insult to crores of Kannadigas. The collective assets of these four banks (State Bank of Mysore, Corporation Bank, Vijaya Bank and Syndicate Bank) stood at Rs. 317 lakh crore, he said and wondered where have all these assets gone now. He argued that the merger of Banks had led to job losses for Kannadigas.

Maintaining that it was the Congress Government led by him that initiated the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway expansion and establishment of Dr. Ambedkar School of Economics at Bengaluru, Siddharamaiah accused the present BJP Government of falsely taking credit for this.

He also wanted to know what punitive action the Modi  Government has taken  on the letter from Karnataka Contractors Association to the PM, which had alleged 40 percent commission in awarding of Government contracts in the Bommai led regime.

Asserting that the ongoing protests against the Centre’s  ‘Agnipath’ Army recruitment scheme was totally justified as the scheme is an ill-conceived one, Siddharamaiah wanted the Government to scrap the scheme.