BENGALURU: Karnataka Congress leaders on Monday termed BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa's allegation of kickbacks against chief minister Siddaramaiah as part of a conspiracy to destabilise the ruling government.
Senior ministers MB Patil, Basavaraj Rayareddy and Sharan Prakash Patil in a joint press conference released a CD of a purported conversation between Yeddyurappa and Ananth Kumar which shows the two leaders engaged in private conversation at a BJP function.
The two leaders are heard discussing the diary seized by the Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax officials from a Congress MLC's residence, which is said to have notes about payments made to Congress high command.
Ananth Kumar is heard asking Yeddyurappa to keep the issue alive till the next Assembly election as the contents of the diary is quite explosive.
The two leaders are also heard speaking about having made similar payments to their own (BJP) high command when the party was in power in Karnataka.
It may be recalled that Yeddyurappa had recently accused CM Siddaramaiah of paying Rs1000 crore to party high command to retain his position as the chief minister.
He was also accused of having received a kickback of Rs65cr in the proposed Steel Flyover project in Bengaluru.
Yeddyurappa when asked about the CD row, declined to comment.