BENGALURU: Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Friday accused the central government of tapping into state congress leaders' telephone conversations since last three months. Speaking to mediapersons, Reddy said over 100 Congress leaders, including ministers' phones, are tapped and a complaint was filed with the Centre. "Through inputs from intelligence agencies and our own sources, we came to know that our phones are being tapped. They are trying to get details about our party's election strategies, but the BJP will not even win in 60 constituencies," he said.
The senior Congress leader also accused the Centre of misusing the Income Tax department to intimidate Congress leaders and workers ahead of May 12 polls. He accused the IT department officials of threatening party workers to either work for the BJP or not to support the Congress. "The IT department officials should be given BJP membership as they are dancing to the tunes of their leaders," Reddy alleged.
Accusing the the BJP of carrying out a false propaganda against the government through their advertisements, Reddy said that during BJP's rule, Bengaluru was called garbage city and the civic body had mismanaged the finances and mortgaged many government properties. The Congress will expose BJP government's failures, he said.
Reddy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah should explain why they are tapping into Congress leaders' phones and also misusing the IT department. A few senior Congress leaders, including minister DK Shivakumar, were raided by the IT department.