Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah: BJP trying to poach minister Shivakumar

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday accused the BJP of attempting to poach state minister D K Shivakumar, who faced income tax searches in August.

“The efforts of BJP leaders to poach D K Shivakumar through I-T officials will not bear fruit. Shivakumar will not fall for any enticement,’’ Siddaramaiah said.

The investigation wing of the Karnataka and Goa unit of the income tax department searched 60 premises linked to Shivakumar on August 2. The searches, at the time he was sheltering 42 Gujarat Congress MLAs in a resort near Bengaluru to prevent poaching by the BJP ahead of a Rajya Sabha election, had kicked off a political storm.

The Chief Minister’s statement comes in the light of reports that Shivakumar, who is the minister for energy in the Karnataka government, was approached by a minister in the central government with an offer to switch to the BJP following the August IT raids.

There have been reports in the local media that Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, was offered the post of deputy Chief Minister by the BJP and that his brother D K Suresh, the MP from the Bengaluru Rural Lok Sabha seat, had been guaranteed a BJP ticket from the constituency. Shivakumar has not commented on the reports.

Since August, Shivakumar and his family have been questioned several times and several business and political associates of the minister have also come under tax scrutiny. The Congress has accused the BJP of using the income tax department as an instrument of political vendetta.

Shivakumar is the chairman of the Congress campaign committee for the Assembly polls in 2018 and is considered to be a contender for the post of CM if the Congress retains power in Karnataka.