Politics in Karnataka has already hit the nadir with the former chief minister describing the incumbent, BS Yeddyurappa, as a 'drunkard' and 'stray dog'.
Karnataka Janata Dal (S) chief HD Kumaraswamy may not yet have returned to state politics. But politics in Karnataka has already hit the nadir with the former chief minister describing the incumbent, BS Yeddyurappa, as a “drunkard” and “stray dog”.
Declaring that he was ready to retire from politics if the chief minister proved even one case of financial impropriety against him, Kumaraswamy on Monday said, “I am not making any baseless allegations against the chief minister, but he is resorting to hit-and-run tactics. Without producing a single document, he is alleging that Gowda and sons have looted the state. He should prove what he has said. Else, he should stop speaking like a drunkard. Yeddyurappa is like a stray dog which only barks but does not bite.”
He also alleged that during the two years he was in office, Yeddyurappa and his kin have made pecuniary gains to the tune of Rs500 crore and caused losses to the government to the extent of Rs3,768 crore.
“Unlike earlier chief ministers, Yeddyurappa has denotified lands in developed layouts and these lands had even been taken into possession 25-30 years ago. No other chief minister in the past had denotified lands whose possession had been taken by various agencies. Most properties denotified are in prime locations and are in the name of companies associated with Yeddyurappa’s relatives like Besto Infrastructure Private Ltd, Elyon Developers Private Ltd, Helath Zone Advisors (India) Ltd. Individuals like Kumsi Manjunath, D Doddappa, Akkamahadevi, BG Channappa, Mahabaleshwara, K Shivappa and others are acting as frontmen and frontwomen for these companies,” Kumaraswamy said.
“In 20 instances where the owners were not big-time developers or contractors, companies run by the chief minister’s children, like Dhavalagiri Developers Ltd, Bhagat Homes, Sahyadri Healthcare and Diagnostics Limited, had paid advances to the land owners to the tune of Rs100 crore and got the lands transferred to the companies after getting them denotified,” he said.
Yeddyurappa had denotified 221 acres of land in 106 instances and the beneficiaries included Congress leaders like Dharam Singh and DK Shivakumar who were not raising their voice against the chief minister, he said.
Admitting that he had denotified 273 acres of land in public interest, Kumaraswamy said he had neither flouted any rules nor did his family members benefit from the denotification.
He said Yeddyurappa was misleading people by claiming that the Murudeshwara Power Corporation project was sanctioned by me.
“The tender for the project was called during my tenure but it was approved and financial bids were opened on October 12, 2007 when I was not the chief minister. The tender was approved on September 30, 2008 when Yeddyurappa was chief minister,” Kumaraswamy said.
He said Jnanasweekar Foundation was being run by his brother, HD Balakrishne Gowda, with a corpus of Rs13 crore of which Rs12 crore was a bank loan and not a single paise of donation had been taken.
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