BENGALURU: After the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday rejected Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s plea challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s sanction to prosecute him in the MUDA case, the CM asserted that he will not resign from his post as he has not done anything wrong.
After the HC’s verdict, Siddaramaiah along with DCM DK Shivakumar, his cabinet colleagues, including Law Minister HK Patil, Energy Minister KJ George, Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa, Forest Minister Eshwar Khandre, Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa and Agriculture Minister N Chaluvarayaswamy, held a high-voltage press conference at his official residence Krishna.
Siddaramaiah said he has not yet thoroughly read the HC’s order, but will take the next course of legal action, including moving the Supreme Court, after discussing it with legal experts, his cabinet colleagues at the meeting on Thursday and the party high command.
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“The HC ordered an inquiry under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption(PC) Act. That does mean that I have committed a mistake. The HC has rejected the prosecution under Section 218 of BNSS and earlier the governor had not issued sanction for the prosecution under Section 19 of the PC Act,” CM Siddaramaiah said.
“I am confident that the truth will come out and the investigation under 17A of the PC Act will be cancelled. The people of the state are behind me in this political struggle. I believe in law and the Constitution and truth will prevail,” he said.
“Has Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is on bail, resigned from his post at the investigation stage as an FIR has been filed against him? We will face them (BJP and JDS) politically because it is a conspiracy against the ruling Congress government they had hatched,” he said, replying to the opposition parties’ demand for his resignation.
“I am never afraid of BJP-JDS conspiracy, misappropriation and misuse of Raj Bhavan. People of the state, party high command, legislators, ministers and party workers are with me. The high command will cooperate with the legal fight. The government has the blessings of people of the state who gave a mandate with 136 MLAs.
The Modi-led government at the Centre has been doing vendetta politics not only against me, but against opposition-led governments across the country,” he said.
He alleged that since BJP’s efforts to destabilise the Congress government proved futile, the opposition party has been plotting by misusing the governor’s office. He said BJP and JDS did not come to power on their own strength and lost the 2023 Assembly elections miserably.
“BJP-JDS has never come to power with people’s blessing, but acquired power through money, operation lotus and through back door politics,” he added.