In an attempt to counter the Congress’s aggressive campaign against alleged corruption by the BJP government, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai launched an offensive on Saturday, saying that they would soon expose the scandals of the Siddaramaiah-led Congress regime.
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Setting the tone of the campaign ahead of the Assembly polls next year and the legislature session beginning on Monday, the twice-postponed Janaspandana event at Doddaballapur --- to mark three years of the BJP government in the State and one year of Mr. Bommai-led governance -- became a forum for BJP leaders to train their guns on Mr. Siddaramaiah and his regime.
The tirade, specifically focused on the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, comes about a month after the Congress leader’s massive birthday bash at Davangere that drew lakhs of people.
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Attacking the previous Congress government over alleged corruption and claiming that their “double engine” government had served the State better, the leaders said BJP would win 150 seats in the 2023 Assembly elections.
Defectors termed ‘veeraru’
Mr. Bommai termed the coalition government in 2018 as a “subversion of the mandate due to the power greediness of the Congress” and described the 17 defectors to BJP as “veeraru” (men of courage) who had helped “end the misrule” and brought the BJP to power.
Going hammer and tongs at Mr. Siddaramaiah, Mr. Bommai described the Congress governance as “corrupt” and that it would soon be exposed. “You talk of commission in my government. Yours was a 100% commission government,” he said, alleging that many bills were cleared without any works being taken up. Listing out a string of alleged scams, he spoke of the Arkavathi re-do exercise and teachers and police recruitments, among others. He said that teachers’ recruitment scam probe had already been handed over to CID and more would follow. “People will see for themselves how corrupt the Congress regime was,” he said. He alleged that IAS officer Anurag Tiwari who was probing irregularities in Anna Bhagya scheme had died “mysteriously”.
BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel requested the Chief Minister to order a probe into allegations of corruption in the Arkavathi re-do scheme, while BJP national general secretary C.T. Ravi asked the crowd what would happen to Mr. Siddaramaiah and D. K. Shivakumar if they probed the alleged Arkavathi re-do scam and the solar allotment scam.
‘Ready to face probe’
Taking to Twitter later, Mr. Siddaramaiah hit back, saying this amounted to blackmail and that they would not bend. “In the last 16 years, they [BJP] were in power for 11 years. If the Chief Minister has the courage, let him order a probe for the entire duration. We are ready to face any investigation,” he said.