BJP Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel levelled serious charges against Congress leader S Siddaramaiah, alleging that the Opposition leader had “paid” Sonia Gandhi to become the chief minister in 2013.
While levelling the allegations, Kateel said Siddaramaiah managed to bag the CM post despite the presence of senior Congress leaders like DK Shivakumar and RV Deshapande.
“Siddaramaiah made payment to ‘madam Sonia’ and retained his CM seat in the state. Through payments only Siddaramaiah kept ‘madam’ happy,” the BJP leader was quoted by IANS as saying
“If at all there is any candidate who has become the chief minister after paying for it is Siddaramaiah. When he took over as the chief minister, Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Mallikarjun Kharge, former DCM and senior Dalit leader G Parameshwar were senior to him,” Kateel added.
Siddaramaiah was the chief minister from 2013 and 2018 after Congress obtained a majority in the Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah took strong objection to Kateel’s allegations and hit back saying BJP leaders are insecure about the upcoming Assembly polls and that is the reason they were targetting him.
“More strong, more enemies; less strong, less enemies; no strong, no enemies. Whom did they (BJP leaders) target in Doddaballapura convention organised to mark completion of one-year at office of CM Basavaraj Bommai?” Siddaramaiah questioned.
The Karnataka BJP president on Monday claimed that Siddaramaiah will be sent to jail in the de-notification of government land case.
“We will probe the Arkavathy de-notification scandal which took place during Siddaramaiah’s tenure. Through the Lokayukta as many as 52 cases will come out in connection with the scandal and those who are involved in the scandal would be sent to jail,” Kateel told mediapersons.
