BENGALURU: This over has ten balls and all of them are scorchers. On Monday, BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa took on Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy in a head-on battle, choosing to pose ten questions to the CM that forced a response from Kumaraswamy later in the evening.
Kumaraswamy recently finished a year in office and Yeddyurappa’s questions to him included a broad range of topics, from the farm loan waiver to his latest ‘Grama Vastavya’ programme. “For 13 months you stayed at a five-star hotel, during this time there were around 1,500 farmer suicides, do you have an answer to this?” was Yeddyurappa’s first salvo at Kumaraswamy. He also attacked the farm loan waiver scheme, claiming that Kumaraswamy had not kept his promise of waiving off loans worth Rs. 48,000 crore within 24-hours of taking over as CM.
“When the state is reeling under drought, why are you going ahead with your ‘Grama Vastavya’ visit,” Yeddyurappa questioned. “In this age of scientific advancement, is a village visit the only way to find out grievances? Is this for publicity? Will you bring out a white paper on expenses and what was achieved after visiting 42 villages?” he questioned.
He also accused the CM of neglecting North Karnataka when it came to budgetary allocations. “How much do they receive in allocations?” he questioned.Yeddyurappa also targeted Kumaraswamy on the IMA case and asked why he was silent so far on the matter. Accusing Kumaraswamy of corruption, Yeddyurappa asked, “How much of a kickback did you receive from giving 3,667 acres in Ballari for Rs. 1.22 lakh?”
Taking up the issue of the squabbling amid the coalition partners, Yeddyurappa likened the arguing to a street fight between the Congress and the JDS. “When will people of the state get relief from your misguided government and intra-coalition public squabbling?”
The former CM also released a booklet stating that the only result Kumaraswamy achieved from his previous round of village stays in 2006-07 was to burden the exchequer. “When the BJP visited these places, they realised that the entire exercise was a wasted effort,” Yeddyurappa said.