Targeting Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s Grama Vaastavya (village stay), the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday came out with a booklet on what it called ‘the drama of village stay’, listing the “failures” of a similar exercise during his earlier stint.
The party also posed 10 queries to him, including questioning the need for holding village stays when there is technology to directly interact with people.
Releasing the book, which has narratives of families with whom Mr. Kumaraswamy stayed during his previous village stay programme, BJP State president B.S. Yeddyurappa challenged him to release a White Paper on his earlier programme.
Describing the present village stay programme as a “mere gimmick,” Mr. Yeddyurappa wondered why the Chief Minister had failed to implement the pre-poll promise of waiving all farm loans within 24 hours of coming to power.
The other questions included seeking the Chief Minister’s reply on the suicide by 1,500 farmers; the “kickbak received by him for selling government land to JSW company”, and why the government was hesitating to handover the IMA scam probe to the CBI.
Taunting the Chief Minister for the internal bickering in the ruling coalition, Mr. Yeddyurappa wondered when people of the State would be relieved of such a situation. Later, Mr. Yeddyurappa reiterated that the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government would not survive for long. Taking exception to the public exchange of criticism between the ruling allies, he said the legislators themselves would put an end to such a mess, hinting at the possibility of political defections.
He also hit out at Congress leader Siddaramaiah for his remarks that Mr. Yeddyurappa’s dream of becoming the Chief Minister again will not come true. “It is not me, but Mr. Siddaramaiah who is dreaming of becoming Chief Minister again,” he said.
