I-T officials asked DK Shivakumar to join BJP, says Siddaramiah
BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday caused a flutter by stating that the BJP tried to browbeat Energy Minister DK Shivakumar into joining the saffron outfit during the recent I-T raids on his premises.
Addressing a protest rally at the ‘Black Day’ observed by the Congress at Freedom Park on the first anniversary of demonetisation, Siddaramaiah termed the Narendra Modi government at the Centre as a ‘raid government’ and said, “The BJP government is indulging in gross misuse of the I-T department. The tax officials during the raid directly asked Shivakumar whether he would join the BJP. This is the extent of saffronisation in the country.”
Siddaramaiah’s charge surprised many Congress leaders as Shivakumar himself has been guarded in his reaction and less vocal against the I-T raids on his residence and offices.The minister has been subjected to seven rounds of questioning so far after the raids. He had to witness even his family members, including his mother, being quizzed by tax officials recently. But Shivakumar has so far not spoken out vehemently against the Modi government. Though he did accuse the BJP government of misusing the I-T and CBI, Shivakumar refused to dwell too much on the I-T raids that were conducted when he was playing host to Gujarat Congress MLAs huddled in a luxury resort in the city during the Rajya Sabha polls in Gujarat.
HDK takes his own bed, pillow, calls it village stay: CM
While Energy Minister D K Shivakumar has repeatedly said that he would come out unscathed in the I-T raids, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s charge on Wednesday has provided substance to the buzz that BJP is trying to woo Shivakumar.Congress has alleged that the recent I-T raids on its leaders were similar to the BJP’s earlier ‘Operation Lotus’ strategy to engineer defections from rival parties.
Siddaramaiah also criticised the BJP’s Parivartana Yatra saying that people were being brought to the rallies by doling out saris and cash. “This is not my opinion. It was said by their own leader Sogadu Shivanna, who has termed it as not a BJP yatra but a KJP (party briefly floated earlier by BSY) yatra. Yeddyurappa has only two people with him, Shobha Karandlaje and B J Puttaswamy. No one in the party supports him,” he said.
Calling demonetisation as ‘organised loot and legalised plunder,’ the CM said that none of the promises post-demonetisation, be it creating jobs, decreasing terrorism and Naxalism or controlling fake notes had come true.
JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy’s Vikasa Parva also came under attack with the CM asking whether there was any vikas (progress) during Kumaraswamy’s time. “What is this gramavastavya (village stay) he is undertaking now? They take their own bed, pillow and toilet with them and call it a village stay,” he mocked. KPCC president G Parameshwara took on BJP leader C T Ravi who had commented that Parameshwara would join BJP. “I met him earlier and asked if he had said that I was joining BJP. He replied that he was headed to Tumakuru for a rally, had no issues to talk about and that is why he made this statement. I want to make it clear that Congress is my blood and there is no question of me ever leaving the party. And I will not call Ravi to my party. He has to live and die in that party,” he said.
AICC General Secretary and state-in-charge K C Venugopal also briefly took part in the rally before dashing off to Kerala to attend party meetings.