Karnataka: Shivakumar Warns BJP Over Planned Padayatra

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Friday observed it will be ‘suicidal’ for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to hold a 140-km padayatra (March) from Bengaluru city to Mysuru city demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over scams in alleged fraud in Maharishi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation and irregularities in distribution of plots by Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

Shivakumar said, if BJP decides to hold padayatra, the State Government will expose alleged scams during the rule of BJP in Karnataka and the alleged scams will be released one after the other during the course of padayatra of BJP.

“The BJP is master of scams and they will be digging their own grave,” said Shivakumar at a press conference in Bengaluru and alleged “The Congress party is in power in Karnataka and they are trying to bring it down at any cost. Let them do what they want, we will respond to it appropriately.”

The BJP and its ally Janata Dal Secular (JDS) are well aware of the fact that they are losing ground in the State and have joined hands to conduct a padayatra against the Congress party, he said.

Continuing, he alleged, by planning to hold a padayatra against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the Congress party, BJP is conspiring to destabilize the Congress government as they fear Congress alliance is getting stronger day by day at the national level.

Regarding the alleged irregularities in MUDA plot distribution, he said, plots have been allotted to Chief Minister’s family in accordance with bylaws of MUDA and cleared that CM’s family had not asked for alternate plots as compensation in a specific locality in Mysuru city but MUDA allotted plots to the CM’s family when BJP was in power in the State.

“As far as the CM's family is concerned, everything has happened within the legal framework,” claimed Shivakumar.

Shivakumar wanted BJP leaders to answer about alleged scams during their tenure before embarking upon a padayatra and pointed out to the entry of Enforcement Directorate into the alleged scam in Valmiki Corporation when the State Government formed a Special Investigation Team under Criminal Investigation Department to investigation the fraudulent bank transactions in the accounts of Valmiki Corporation.

Adding, he said, BJP plans to play a similar trick by ratcheting up MUDA plot distribution irregularities.