'BJP set world record in corruption in Karnataka'

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi Friday said the BJP government in Karnataka has created a "world record" in corruption but was talking about corruption of the central government.

"The Karnataka government has created a world record in corruption but this did not come to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders' attention," he told a public meeting while campaigning for the Congress candidates in the May 5 assembly poll in this north Karnataka town, about 300km from Bangalore.

Gandhi said the BJP leaders ignored people's welfare and squabbled for money and urged the electorate to vote Congress back to power to put Karnataka back on development path.

The Congress leader was on his second visit to the state to campaign for the party candidates.

On Saturday, his mother and Congress president Sonia Gandhi would tour the state on her first of the three trips for campaigning.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushma Swaraj, who was in the coastal town of Mangalore, about 350 km from Bangalore, for campaigning, meanwhile hit back at the Congress over corruption in 2G (airwave allocation) and 'coalgate'.

She told reporters that the BJP unit in Karnataka was now united, unlike the Congress, and was confident that the electorate would give the party another term. - IANS