Amid a tussle over leadership in the Karnataka government that has so far remained unresolved, Prime Minister Narendra Modi waded into troubled waters on Sunday by mocking the Congress on the issue.

“In Karnataka, during the last three years instead of solving problems of the people, this (Congress) government is spending more time in solving internal disputes. It has not been decided how long this Chief Minister will remain or whether the other person will get power. The issue has been kept hanging,” he said in an address to BJP workers and leaders at HAL Airport here on Sunday.

The Prime Minister’s statement came in the light of the Congress undecided on its Chief Minister in Kerala despite nearly a week after the party won the elections. Mr. Modi said: “Even their (Congress) leaders are given promise but are back-stabbed later. They did it in Chattisgarh and Rajasthan. The game is still on in Karnataka. Now it is the turn of Kerala.”

The Congress government in Karnataka, which is inching closer to the three-year mark, is besieged with troubles over an apparent agreement on a power-sharing formula between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. The public posturing by aides of both leaders have not only embarrassed the government and the Congress, but has dominated the public discourse over development issues. The issue of rotation of power is expected to get ignited again over the next few weeks.

The Prime Minister said: “The Congress knows only betrayal. They are themselves liars and their guarantees are also a lie. They don’t know a chapter of governance. A few months after the Congress forming the government (at State-level) anti-incumbency begins.”

Stating that the Congress government does not have money to pay salaries in Himachal Pradesh and farmers are being forced to commit suicide in Telangana, the Prime Minister said: “Wherever the Congress government is there, the treasury is being looted or there is fight over the loot.”

Turning his attention to the BJP in Karnataka, Mr. Modi said that Karnataka has always remained an energy centre for the party. “When the BJP was not a big party (nationally), Karnataka had made the party a big force.”

The Prime Minister also said that the BJP/NDA government will strive to improve the ease of living and ease of doing business in Karnataka.

No chair is shaky in Karnataka, says DKS

Responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attack on the Congress over leadership issue, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar said that all chairs in Karnataka are strong. “I do not know what is Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeing. In Karnataka no chair is shaky and all chairs are strong,” he told reporters at Lingasugur in Raichur district.