Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is facing the heat in the MUDA site allotment scam, launched a fiery attack on his opponents saying the ‘tainted’ leaders had no morality left to demand his resignation.
Siddaramaiah who was addressing the ‘Janandolana’ – a mega convention held in Mysuru to counter the BJP-JDS’s 7-day ‘Padayatra’ from Bengaluru to Mysuru that entered its last leg on Saturday, made an emotional speech in a bid to safeguard his ‘clean image’.
“In the 40 years of my political career, there has been no blot on my name. My political journey is an open book. Despite being in power, including twice as the chief minister, neither I nor my family grew any love for building assets. My wife Parvati has never attended any public meeting. Even when I took oath as the chief minister, she did not attend the ceremony.
"Most of you sitting here have never seen her. Can you imagine she would do anything wrong? Would I? Will I betray the people of this state? I have never betrayed people and never will. As long as I am in public life, I will never do anything wrong. My aspiration has always been to make the lives of the poor and the oppressed better and to bring them into the mainstream. I have never aspired to accumulate wealth, own buildings and assets,” said Siddaramaiah, amid a cheering crowd that included his party legislators and cabinet colleagues.
The Karnataka CM recalled that his political journey started in 1983 in the Chamundeshwari constituency and to date, he had not spent a single penny for elections as he had the support of the people.
“I was a young lawyer and had no money in my pocket to fight the elections as an independent. I remember people funding my election. I had spent Rs 63,000 for that election. In fact, my office clerk Anand had paid the deposit of Rs 250. My father was not a rich man and my family was not affluent and I had to call the village panchayat to convince my father about my contesting the taluk development board elections. I used to go with MLC Mahesh on his scooter for campaigning.
"Since then, I have won nine times without spending any money. I have fought for justice for the Dalits, backward classes, poor farmers and women. Let the BJP and JDS take out the ill intended Padayatra. I will neither yield nor bend. As long as I have the blessings of the people, no one can touch me,” said Siddaramaiah, who squarely blamed the MUDA for the scam stating that his wife Parvati, a landloser (in Kesare village) had been given 14 compensatory sites as per the existing rule and he had not, in any way influenced the decision of the MUDA either in deciding the quantum of the land given to his wife or the location of the compensatory sites allotted to her.
The chief minister alleged that the opposition parties were ‘jealous’ of him as he was the only CM after late D Devaraj Urs to have completed a full term as the CM. He also claimed that the opposition parties were feeling insecure and want to remove him as the chief minister as he worked for the poor and brought pro-poor schemes like Anna Bhagya, Ksheera Bhagya, Indira Canteen, Shaadi Bhagya, Pashu Bhagya during his first tenure and his government had implemented the five guarantee schemes during his second stint as the CM.
“I became the CM for the second time too with the blessings of the people. They could not fix me in the Valmiki corporation scam as they found no evidence against me. The SIT set up by my government probed into the scam and recovered Rs 50 crore, seized another Rs 46 crore from Hyderabad and arrested 12 persons. The Enforcement Directorate is suo motu case probing the case and without any evidence. So, they are now raking up the MUDA scam to tarnish my name,” said a furious Siddaramaiah, who claimed that the opposition leaders were themselves tainted.
Launching an attack on the BJP and JDS leaders for demanding his resignation on moral grounds Siddaramaiah said that he had never indulged in vindictive politics and if he had, most of his adversaries would have been behind bars today.
“BS Yediyurappa wants me to resign on moral grounds. What morality is left in him? He is 82 years old and is now an accused in a POCSO case. Vijayendra, on the other hand, is involved in several scams and his party leader Yatnal has spoken out about it. Kumaraswamy is an accused in the Jantakal mining case which is still pending before the Supreme Court. Ashok, who is the leader of the opposition now, was the chairman of the land grant committee which ran into legal trouble in the BM Kaval denotification case. Will Vijayendra dare to speak about the Kolkata shell companies that were used to swindle money,” charged Siddaramaiah
The Chief Minister also asserted that he had no penchant for owning property and despite being a finance minister for 12 years, and four decades of public life, he did not own any house. “If I wanted to, I could have earned crores of rupees. I did not have my own house till recently. I had built two houses but had to sell them to repay the loan. I lived in a rented room when I contested my maiden election. Today, I am building a house. But the state leaders, Yediyurappa, Ashok, Vijayendra, Kumaraswamy, along with the centre have hatched a plot to tarnish my clean image. For that they are misusing the Raj Bhavan too. Governor gave me a show cause notice based on a complaint by Abraham, a person with no credibility,” lamented Siddaramaiah.
Earlier, KPCC chief and deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar alleged that the BJP and JDS were trying to topple a democratically elected government. In a show of unity the KPCC chief added that people and the media called him the ‘bande’ (rock) for a reason.
“You want Siddaramaiah’s resignation. But this bande will stand rock solid with Siddaramaiah, along with 135 MLAs and 1,8 crore people who voted for our party.
If the British who ruled India for 200 years could not uproot the Congress, JDs with 19 seats cannot destabilise the Congress government,” said Shivakumar taunting his fellow Vokkaliga (Union minister) Kumaraswamy, as both leaders are apparently locked in a battle of supremacy, to emerge as uncontested leader of the Vokkaligas in the region.
