Bharatiya Janata Party State president Nalin Kumar Kateel on Sunday alleged that former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had conspired to get former Minister D.K. Shivakumar arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged money-laundering case.
Addressing presspersons in Bagalkot on Sunday, he accused the former Chief Minister of playing politics of hatred. He refuted allegations of the BJP indulging in vendetta politics.
“Mr. Shivakumar has not been arrested by the Lokayukta officials or State government. The Congress government was in power in the State in 2017 when the Income Tax officials conducted a raid on his residence. Mr. Siddaramaiah could have stopped it as he was the Chief Minister,” Mr. Kateel said.
He also asserted that his party would have detained Mr. Shivakumar or conducted raids on his residence before the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections if it wanted to play vendetta politics against him.
Mr. Kateel said the Congress leaders were shifting the blame onto the BJP to save their face. Maintaining that Mr. Shivakumar was arrested in a money-laundering case, he said that the Income Tax and Enforcement Directorate officials have lodged a complaint and detained him only after thoroughly studying relevant records.
Flood relief
On the floods, he said Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa has conducted an extensive tour of flood-hit areas. “The previous government paid only ₹92,000 compensation to build houses. But we have announced ₹5 lakh for those whose houses were destroyed in floods,” he added.
He denied allegations that some IAS officers had resigned after they were upset with the functioning of the BJP government. He claimed that they had resigned for personal reasons.