Video clip of K'taka CM’s son’s conversation: Kumaraswamy raises more questions, CM offers to retire from politics if charges proved

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and JDS state president HD Kumaraswamy lashed out at each other on Sunday as the latter stuck to his allegation that the CM and his son Dr Yathindra indulged in corruption in the transfer of officials.

The JDS leader in a series of posts on social media platform X as well as in a press statement threw some more questions at the CM, not satisfied by the explanation he had offered about the mobile conversation his son had with one of his officials.

The CM, in a chat with the media, offered to retire from politics if Kumaraswamy established he made money in official transfers.

Kumaraswamy was now talking about the “money transactions in transfers’ during his own tenue as chief minister, Siddaramaiah said, seeking to turn the tables on his bitter rival. The two leaders were once part of the JDS, and Siddaramaiah switched to the Congress in 2005 after his expulsion from the party over differences with HD Deve Gowda.
Trouble began for the ruling Congress and the CM after a video clip emerged two days ago showing his son talking to an official in CM’s office and asking him to stick to only the ‘4-5’ names he had recommended and not consider names suggested by others. The conversation occurred in the CM's presence.

Kumaraswamy quickly pounced on the CM alleging that the father-son duo had indulged in corruption in the transfer of officials.

With the issue still lingering, the CM sought to put the controversy at rest by saying there was no need to respond to Kumaraswamy’s posts on social media even if he posted hundreds of them.

The JDS leader sought to pick holes in Siddaramaiah’s explanation about the clip, claiming that it was about a conversation related to CSR funds.

The JDS leader put out a list of officials in the CM’s office which indicated the responsibilities assigned to each of them. The person on the phone (Mahadev), Kumaraswamy said had nothing to do with the Varuna constituency or Education department or CSR, while insisting that the conversation was about official transfers as Mahadev handled the subject. The JDS leader asked the CM not to digress from the issue and to reply point blank to the question he had raised about the video clip.

As for Dr Yathindra’s role in Varuna, he said: “Have you outsourced the Varuna assembly seat (in Mysuru) to your son?,” while wondering that it was he the locals elected to represent them in the assembly, not his son.

“I never outsourced my constituency to my son when I was the CM, nor did any CM do so in the past,” Kumaraswamy said, while asking the CM to show under which law he had given official responsibilities to his son. “You are trying to transfer power to your son through the backdoor.”