The inclusion of four leaders from the three major political parties in the State in the list of “corrupt politicians” by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has ruffled the feathers of these parties.
Their main contention is that Mr. Kejriwal has not even mentioned the reasons for classifying their leaders as “corrupt” let alone furnishing evidence to support his allegations.
The names of the former Chief Ministers B.S. Yeddyurappa (BJP), M. Veerappa Moily (Congress) and H.D. Kumraswamy (Janata Dal-S) and former Union Minister Ananth Kumar (BJP) have been included in the list of “corrupt politicians” released in Delhi on Friday by Mr. Kejriwal. He has also called upon people to defeat these politicians.
ADVERTISEMENT
Of the four leaders, Mr. Ananth Kumar is expected to contest from Bangalore South Lok Sabha Constituency, while pressure is being exerted on Mr. Yeddyurappa to contest from Shimoga. Similarly, Mr. Moily who represents Chickballapur Lok Sabha Constituency is keen to contest again.
Alleging that Mr. Kejriwal has merely named various people corrupt without furnishing documents to prove his allegations, BJP State spokesperson S. Suresh Kumar described this as “height of arrogance”. Describing this as a mere political strategy to expand his party’s base outside Delhi in the Lok Sabha polls, Mr. Kumar said such a “hit-and-run” step of making allegations without evidence would not help the cause of the anti-corruption movement.
Leader of the Opposition in the Council D.V. Sadananda Gowda maintained that Mr. Kejriwal, who had formed the government with the support of the Congress whom he had described as the most corrupt, did not have the moral right to talk of corruption. How can he enjoy power with the help of the Congress and still continue to claim that he is fighting corruption, he asked, and said there was no need to take his allegations seriously.
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr. Kumaraswamy challenged Mr. Kejriwal to release documents to prove his involvement in corruption and asked him not to make baseless allegations.
Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was the one who exposed the alleged corrupt deeds of members of the Congress and the BJP, even before Mr. Kejriwal launched a movement against corruption. Attempts by the previous BJP government to pin him down had failed as it could not find any illegality in any of his transactions, he claimed.