Congress, corruption two sides of same coin: BJP’s Ravi

The statements come even as the two national parties trade charges over corruption ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka unit on Sunday said the Congress is the “pitamaha” of corruption and cannot point fingers at other parties, fuelling the heated exchanges between the two national parties in the state.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Karnataka unit on Sunday said the Congress is the “pitamaha” of corruption and cannot point fingers at other parties, fuelling the heated exchanges between the two national parties in the state. (HT)

“The Congress is the ‘pitamaha’ of corruption. The Congress and corruption are two sides of the same coin. Their supreme leader is undergoing an ED (enforcement directorate) probe and the party is unable to handle this. They are trying to protest and intimidate officials,” CT Ravi, BJP national general secretary and legislator from Chikmagalur said.

He added that those giving statements against the BJP on corruption have already been to jail or are on their way to jail, making an apparent reference to Congress state president DK Shivakumar.

The statements come even as the two national parties trade charges over corruption ahead of the 2023 assembly elections.

The Congress has been protesting the ED notice and probe, questioning Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the National Herald case which the party has termed as a “political witch hunt to silence political rivals”.

Ravi said the courts had ordered a probe into the National Herald case and not prime minister Narendra Modi, stating that the Congress was blinded by its devotion to its national president and not to the country.

The allegations come even as the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government in the state faces several charges of corruption, including allegations from the contractor association of demands by elected representatives to cough up almost 40% commission or bribes to award public work contracts, laundering money using cryptocurrencies, the Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) recruitment scam among others.

“I have said that there should be an investigation as the names of politicians, (BY) Vijayendra, Araga Jnanendra (home minister), R Ashoka (revenue minister) names are coming out in the (PSI) scam. We are asking for a judicial enquiry because we know we wont get justice and they will bury it,” Siddaramaiah, the leader of the opposition, said.

He added that even in the case of KS Eshwarappa (senior BJP leader and former minister), the government had tried to bury the case.

The Udupi district police last Wednesday gave a clean chit to Eshwarappa in the death of public works contractor, Santosh Patil.

The B report or a cancellation report is filed when no evidence is found against the accused was submitted in a special court in Bengaluru, and has raised a political storm with the opposition Congress and Patil’s family alleging irregularities in the process.

Siddaramaiah said there was a death note and the family of Patil had approached the authorities to state that the government was using its influence to cover up the case.