Bharatiya Janata Party chief Amit Shah, campaigning in poll-bound Karnataka, on Tuesday claimed that the state had taken no action against Congress MLA NA Haris’s son who has been accused of assaulting a man in a restaurant in Bengaluru on February 17. Shah’s claim comes two days after the police have filed an FIR against Mohammed Haris Nalapad on charges of assault and attempt to murder.

Nalapad surrendered before the Cubbon Park Police on Monday and was remanded in police custody for two days. On Sunday, the Congress had also suspended Nalapad, who was the Bengaluru District Youth Congress general secretary, from the party for six years.

The BJP president criticised the ruling Congress and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for his “politics of appeasement”. “There was no FIR,” Shah said at a rally in Dakshina Kannada’s Sullia village. “Why? Not only because he is Haris’s son, but because it involved appeasement of groups and vote-bank politics.”

On Tuesday, Shah also criticised the Karnataka government over development issues, and said a victory for the BJP in the state will open the gates for the party to the south. “This is an election not only related to the state but also the interests of the entire nation,” Shah said. “In this election, a government will come in Karnataka which will open doors to the south for us.”

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a public rally in Mysuru – his first election address in the poll-bound state. He said the Congress government in Karnataka was “misleading people and dividing society”. Mysuru, the home district of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, is considered a Congress stronghold.

The BJP’s campaigns in Karnataka come just a week after Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressed multiple meetings in the state.