BJP expands anti-Sidda pitch to Kharge’s family, Congress vows ‘fightback’
On a day when the BJP expanded its anti-Siddaramaiah pitch in Karnataka to the family of Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, the grand old party dismissed the attack as “pure political witch hunt”, vowing a fight back.
Top Congress brass which reviewed Enforcement Directorate action (ED filed a money laundering case on Monday) against Siddaramaiah in the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam decided to back its Chief Minister in Karnataka, the richest state currently in the party’s kitty.
“By now everyone knows ED as the government’s election demolition machine. Wherever BJP loses elections, it presses ED, CBI and Income Tax into action. They had been looking for an opportunity to disrupt our government in Karnataka. This came with the MUDA case. They have tried this script in Delhi, Jharkhand and failed. CM Siddaramaiah will stay and fight,” Pranav Jha, AICC secretary attached to Congress chief Kharge, told The Tribune today after BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad questioned the latest allegations.
“Have Congress leaders become property dealers?” Prasad asked, citing examples of Haryana and Rajasthan where, he alleged, similar cases involving top Congress leaders were before courts.
In Karnataka, BJP chief BY Vijayendra dismissed the decision of Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvati to relinquish ownership of 14 plots (at the centre of MUDA scam) as “admission of guilt” and demanded CM’s resignation. The Congress, however, has made up its mind to slug it out. Its leaders say the BJP of 2024 is not the BJP of 2014. “Public credibility of today’s BJP is not the same as that of the BJP from 2014 to 2019. Also, this is a BJP on TDP and JD(U) crutches. The Opposition will fight back and not succumb to the tactics of dislodging non-BJP governments. Karnataka CM will stay,” Congress sources said.
They added that the party had come a long way from times when ministers would be sacked (a reference to UPA ministers A Raja, Pawan Bansal, Ashwani Kumar) over BJP’s graft allegations.
“Has anything ever been proven? No. ED action on Karnataka CM is BJP’s panic reaction to imminent defeats in state polls. The more they attack us, the more we will gain. It’s a game of nerves,” a Congress functionary said.
Asked why its other Karnataka heavyweight DK Shivakumar was not openly backing Siddaramaiah, Congress leaders said Shivakumar was firmly on the CM’s side. “Everyone understands their futures are tied to a stable Congress government in Karnataka,” said a party source. Shivakumar, who has been coveting the CM’s chair having often claimed credit for the 135 seats Congress won in Karnataka, had defended Siddaramaiah a week back, ruling out his resignation. This was after Karnataka High Court rejected CM’s plea challenging the Governor’s sanction to probe MUDA scam involving him. Since then, Shivakumar has been lying low. Keen to push the envelope on graft, the BJP today questioned Kharge on allegations that a trust linked to his family got land from multiple Karnataka authorities for a uniform purpose, an alleged violation. BJP’s NR Ramesh has petitioned Karnataka Lokayukta police and Governor over allotments to Siddharth Vihara Trust led by Kharge’s family, a charge Congress chief’s son and state minister Priyank Kharge has denied as “witch-hunt”.
Meanwhile, BJP’s senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Whenever Congress forms a government, land deals come up — be it under former CM BS Hooda in Haryana or MUDA scam under Siddaramaiah in Karnataka. How did a society linked to Kharge’s family get five acres after the state government framed rules to set up R&D facility in Karnataka’s high-tech defence corridor?”
