K'taka Polls: Oppn has no right to speak on inflation, says FM Nirmala

BENGALURU: Union Finance Minister who was among the early voters on Wednesday to cast her vote at a polling booth in Bengaluru said that the public should not be burdened by inflation, however, the Opposition has no right to speak on this issue.

"On inflation, I am with the public that yes, there should not be a burden on them but the Opposition has no right (to speak on it). They should look at their own tenure," Nirmala Sitharaman said while talking to reporters after casting her vote here in the Karnataka Assembly elections.

The union minister also termed the Congress promise of banning the Bajrang Dal as "an example of stupidity".

"We always read Hanuman Chalisa and offer prayers to Bajrang Bali, but they (Congress) do this during the election. They mentioned that in their manifesto, this is an example of stupidity," she said.

During political campaigning for the State elections - the issue of Bajrang Dal took centre stage.

The Congress party last week in its manifesto stated that it will take "decisive action" as per law including banning organisations like Bajrang Dal, the Popular Front of India and others.

Meanwhile, voting commenced at 7 am today for 224 assembly constituencies in Karnataka where 2,615 candidates are in the fray.

The majority mark to form the government is 113 seats.

Polling is scheduled across 58,545 polling stations including auxiliary polling stations.

A total of 42,48,028 new voters have been registered to vote for the assembly elections.

As many as 5.3 crore general voters are going to cast their vote tomorrow in 58,545 polling stations in 37,777 locations.

Out of which 11,71,558 are young voters and 12,15,920 are 80+ senior citizen voters. There are also 5,71,281 PwD (Persons with disabilities) voters. Around 4,00,000 polling personnel are engaged in poll processes.