'I am ready to face any kind of inquiry. Let the chief minister order it. Let the inquiry find out whether I indulged in favouritism or nepotism, as done by Yeddyurappa,' Kumaraswamy said.
Former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy today challenged the BJP government in the state to order a probe into the denotification of lands during his regime, disregarding an appeal by a group of ruling party leaders for an halt to 'mudslinging acts'.
"I stand by my allegations and accept the challenge. I am ready to face any kind of inquiry. Let the chief minister order it. Let the inquiry find out whether I indulged in favouritism or nepotism, as done by Yeddyurappa", Kumaraswamy, state unit president of JD(S), told a press conference in Bangalore.
"We cannot be cowed down by threats. I will continue to expose the misdeeds of this government", he said reacting to BJP MP DB Chandre Gowda's threat that if the "mud slinging" acts by JD(S) did not stop, irregularities that took place while denotifying lands by Kumaraswamy as chief minister would be made public.
Earlier in the day, coming to the defence of Yeddyurappa, a group of BJP leaders, led by Chandregowda, appealed to opposition parties particularly, the JD(S), to "halt mud slinging acts and defaming Karnataka in streets."
Addressing a press conference at the chief minister's home office "Krishna", they said "let us stop washing the dirty linen in public and try to reconcile ourselves".
Kumaraswamy said his party would take the issue of land denotification and allotment of sites by Yeddyurappa to his son BY Raghavendra, MP, to legal forums.
In a fresh allegation, the third in the series since last week, he charged Yeddyurappa with denotifying ten acres of land in Nagawara area after the Bangalore Development Authority had allotted the sites and the allottees had built houses. It was a violation of Supreme Court order, he claimed.
Yeddyurappa had yesterday admitted that he had denotified 7.5 acres under powers vested with him but dismissed as "baseless" and a "figment of imagination" allegations of irregularities levelled by Kumaraswamy against him.
Hitting back at Kumaraswamy, Chandragowda alleged that he had denotified 275.21 acres of land including 60 acres in favour of a private firm during his regime in 2007.
"People making allegations should get ready to face them first. We will be constrained to bring out irregularities that took place during Kumaraswamy regime including on denotification of lands", Gowda, a former speaker warned.
"It is not fair to indulge in character assassination of Yeddyurappa. He has got mandate to rule for five years. Allow him to rule. We know the family politics of HD Devegowda", Gowda, who was in Janata parivar for a long time, said.
He also charged when the state was under a spell of presiden't rule then governor Rameshwar Thakur had ordered denotification of 127.21 acres.
Minister for labour BN Bacchegowda and political secretary to the chief minister BJ Puttaswamy were also present.
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