BJP chargesheet: Scams, graft, nepotism

Bengaluru: With barely a year to go for 2018 Assembly elections in the state, the BJP, hamstrung by its own internal troubles,  on Thursday went on the offensive and attempted to discredit the performance of the four-year-old Siddaramaiah government.

State BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa and senior leader Jagadish Shettar, who  released a 63-page chargesheet listing the failures of the state government in various sectors, claimed that CM  Siddaramaiah had failed in delivering good governance, and his tenure was marred by scams, nepotism and maladministration.

Accusing the government of being the most corrupt in the country, Mr. Yeddyurappa charged that it had also failed on the law and order front as the state had seen 6521 murders and over 1.25 lakh criminal cases were registered in Bengaluru city alone. He accused Mr Siddaramaiah of betraying people by not releasing drought relief funds received from the Centre and failing to   keep its promise of releasing Rs 10,000 crore a year for the Upper Krishna Project.

Recalling that a recent survey by the Centre for Media Studies had ranked Karnataka number one in corruption,  Mr. Shettar alleged that Mr Siddaramaiah had  weakened the institution of the Lokayukta to protect his tainted ministers. 

“Although the Centre had released '8,939 crore last year for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme,  the state has utilized only Rs 8,259 crore when it is facing  severe drought,” he said.

Warning that the party was collecting details of the  KPSC recruitment scam, he said it would soon make the information  public.