CM Siddaramaiah counters HD Kumaraswamy, Says Will retire from politics if guilty
BJP and JDS have tied-up to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Till date, Kumaraswamy has not proved any of his false allegations.
Published: 20th November 2023 07:11 AM | Last Updated: 20th November 2023 07:11 AM | A+A A-
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah with DCM and KPCC President D K Shivakumar during 106th birth anniversary of Indira Gandhi. (Photo | PTI)
BENGALURU: The war of words between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and state JDS president HD Kumaraswamy over the issue of “cash for transfer” refuses to die down, with the former on Sunday saying that he will retire from politics if proven that he has taken money even in a single transfer of government officials. Denying the allegations made by Kumaraswamy, Siddaramaiah said that Kumaraswamy was attacking him and his deputy DK Shivakumar on behalf of BJP.
BJP and JDS have tied-up to fight the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Till date, Kumaraswamy has not proved any of his false allegations. Has he given any documents? He is a hit-and-run case who has been attacking me and Shivakumar at the behest of BJP,” Siddaramaiah said at an event organised to mark the birth anniversary of former PM Indira Gandhi at the KPCC office in Bengaluru.
Earlier, Kumaraswamy continued his tirade against Siddaramaiah and former Varuna MLA Dy Yathindra over the “cash for transfer” issue. Taking to ‘X’, the JDS leader said, “Have you (Siddaramaiah) outsourced Varuna constituency to your son (Yathindra)? Is it true that you and your son spoke over the phone about the transfer scam?,” Kumaraswamy asked, referring to the purported video of Yathindra that went viral recently.
“Even if he (Kumaraswamy) tweets a hundred times, there is no need to reply to him. As I have said before, if there was a single case of exchange of money for officials’ transfers proven against me, I will retire from my political life. Such scams happened when he was the CM,” Siddaramaiah told reporters earlier in Vidhana Soudha. He told party workers not to worry about the words of Kumaraswamy who talks “silly”. “Focus on winning the upcoming Lok Sabha polls,” he told Congress workers.
He said BJP and JDS were trying to show the State Government in a bad light as they were jealous of Congress coming to power. He claimed that transfers are a natural process to reform the administrative machinery. Calling Yathindra the “corrupt son of Siddaramaiah”, Kumaraswamy alleged that he made the entire state bow down its head in shame. “As far as I know, no CM has ever outsourced his work to their children. You set a precedent by giving your son a backdoor entry to power with a post of member of Karnataka Development Programme. Is there any provision in the constitution that allows this?” he questioned.
