The eight-day ‘Mysore chalo’ padayatra of the BJP and the JDS to protest against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s alleged involvement in the MUDA site allotment scam, culminated in Mysuru on Saturday. Leaders of both the parties launched a scathing attack on Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar a day after they threatened to expose the opposition parties during the ‘Janandolan’ rally in Mysuru.
The opposition leaders, who reached Mysuru after covering 123 km on foot, mocked the Congress saying it has set a new tradition of a ruling party resorting to protest when cornered by the opposition over corruption. The saffron party leaders asserted that their fight would continue till the chief minister resigns.
“Siddaramaiah’s socialist mask has fallen off. If he is honest as he claims, why did he flee the Assembly avoiding a debate on the MUDA scam? We were forced to take out a Padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru as the CM was not prepared to face our questions. It is a shame that the CM, who has been a lawyer, appointed a one-man commission in a hurry to probe the Valmiki corporation scam worth Rs 187 crore just before the Assembly sessions began only to silence the opposition. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar who is threatening the oppositions leaders, should first reveal what they are hiding in MUDA and Valmiki scams,” said state BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra, who shared the dais with his father and former chief minister B.S. Yediyurappa, former chief ministers Basavaraj Bommai, Sadananda Gowda, Union minister and JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy and his son and JD(S) youth wing president Nikhil Kumaraswamy, along with legislators, members of parliament and senior leaders from both parties.
Kumaraswamy, who was annoyed with the Congress party displaying banners with a long list of MUDA site beneficiaries allegedly belonging to the Devegowda family, said, “Siddaramaiah claimed that his political life was an open book. Then, why doesn’t he make Kempanna report on Arkavathy layout denotification public? He helped his son set up a lab in Malleswaram. The list is long. Yet you put up a banner to target the Devegowda family.”
Irked over Shivakumar playing old videos of Kumaraswamy and Yediyurappa locked in a verbal battle in the Assembly, during the Congress rally, Kumaraswamy too played old videos of D.K. Shivakumar allegedly admitting to having links with underworld don Kothwal Ramachandra in the past. Kumaraswamy said Shivakumar with questionable credentials had no morality to comment on him or the Devegowda family and also accused the deputy CM of stealing manhole covers during his early days.
Slamming Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah for showing camaraderie on stage, Kumaraswamy said, “In 2018, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar came to me to form the coalition. Shivakumar who calls himself as ‘bande’(rock) stood by me. I should have kept the ‘rock’ at safe distance. It came down crushed my head. Today, the same rock says it will stand with Siddaramaiah. This should worry Siddaramaiah.”
Lashing out at Siddaramaiah, the JD(S) leader said the chief minister should stop playing the ‘Ahinda’ leader as he was the CM of the entire state and not just a leader of the backward classes.
Yediyurappa, in his speech, hit back at Siddaramaiah for asking him to retire from politics citing his old age and said he was here for a long haul.
“I will remain in politics till my last breath and will not retire until I send corrupt Siddaramaiah home. Siddaramaiah is indulging in daylight robbery and people are fed up off him. All development work in the state has been halted for want of funds as your government has gone bankrupt. Give me one example in the country where a chief minister has usurped 14 sites and is demanding Rs 62 crore to return them. As long as we have such a CM and DCM, no development can take place in Karnataka. So, I dare Siddaramaiah to dissolve the Assembly and go for polls. I can assure you, the BJP and JDS will win more than 140 seats if we go for polls now. Last time, the Congress won by fluke,” said Yediyurappa, adding that he was 82 but his limbs were strong enough to tour the state and send home a corrupt government.
“Two honest officers P. Chandrashekaran and PSI Parshuram committed suicide exposing the corruption in the Congress rule. DK Shivakumar, who is questioning the opposition about their properties, should understand that the bigger question is of the chief minister grabbing a dalit’s land in the name of ‘arshina-kumkuma’ custom. There are 89000 applicants who are still waiting for MUDA sites. But Siddaramaiah has been given 14 sites. We are demanding justice for the common man,” said Ashok.
Union minister Prahlad Joshi slammed Siddaramaiah for claiming that he had not a single blot on him in his 40-year-long political career. “I agree the CM has not one but many blots. The ’Janandolan’ by Congress is not people’s protest but ‘Dhan-andolan’ (rally for money), where state leaders collect funds for the high command. The CM and the DCM fight in private and put up a show that they are united in public. Our Padayatra is a huge success as the chief minister has now declared that he would return the sites. But we will continue to fight him politically and legally. You cannot let off a thief just because he returns the booty. Mysuru which has a rich legacy is today in the limelight for the wrong reasons because of Siddaramaiah. Siddramaiah claims that he is targeted because he is a backward class leader. But he has no qualms about diverting funds meant for the oppressed classes. Corruption is in Congress party’s DNA. Also, humiliation of SC, ST and OBC communities is also part of Congress’s DNA as it has humiliated Jagjivan Ram and Sitaram Kesari,” said Joshi, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, was an OBC leader.
Nikhil Kumaraswamy reminded Siddaramaiah that he was part of Janata Parivar and he had called Sonia Gandhi as “foreign passport” and had also said what could be more disastrous than being ruled by a foreign lady.
“Siddaramaiah who claims to be a Ahinda leader drove out Mallikarjun Kharge out of state politics. He ensured the defeat of Parameshwara and removed another dalit leader V. Srinivas Prasad from his cabinet. D.K. Shivakumar makes personal attacks on both HDK and HDD. We are prepared to fight you politically. But you should at least give respect to Deve Gowda’s age,” said Nikhil.
BJP’s Karnataka in-charge Radhamohan Agrawal slammed the Congress rally saying, “Yesterday’s rally was a government rally carried out with the government funds to save the corrupt government. The participants were bribed to attend the rally. On the other hand, we had the BJP-JDS rally that saw volunteers coming from across the state, spending their own money as they could not tolerate a government looting the state’s resources to fill their own pockets. What is this government scared of and why is so shaken?,” asked Agrawal, who also questioned D.K. Shivakumar’s credentials.
“Who does not know D.K. Shivakumar’s background? When he fought his first election in Kanakapura, he had an asset of Rs 75 crore. He had an asset of Rs 1,400 crore when he fought the elections last year. He should explain to people how he earned so much money as he is in the race for the CM’s post too. The ‘clean CM’ is also exposed today,” mocked Agrawal.
JD(S) leader Bandepppa Kashempur took the ruling Congress to task for claiming that there were at least 25 scams during the BJP rule in the state as he said, “If there were so many scams, what were you doing as the principal opposition party? The CM and his cabinet colleagues are busy making speeches when north Karnataka and Kodagu are suffering due to floods and landslides,” slammed the Kuruba leader.
