‘Yeddyurappa funded Gadkari’s son’s wedding’

In a personal attack on BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Congress general secretary BK Hariprasad on Thursday alleged that Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had funded his son’s wedding bash in Nagpur recently.

In a personal attack on BJP president Nitin Gadkari, Congress general secretary BK Hariprasad on Thursday alleged that Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa had funded his son’s wedding bash in Nagpur recently.

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The attack came in response to Gadkari’s interview to HT in which he stated that Yeddyurappa’s allotment of land to his sons and other relatives was “immoral but not illegal”.

“Morally, Gadkari is wrong. The entire resources for his son’s wedding came from Yeddyurappa’s illegal transactions,” Hariprasad alleged.

The Nagpur extravaganza, he claimed, was “part of a deal” struck between Gadkari and Yeddyurappa.

On his part, Gadkari has maintained that the de-notification of land done during Yeddyurappa’s tenure did “not amount to corruption but was only unethical”.

But Hariprasad questioned the chief minister’s move to return the de-notified land. “How could the Chief Minister be let off by merely returning the land that was de-notified and given to his family,” he said.

The Lokayukta, Hariprasad said, has been taking action against a large number of people for possessing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income. “Can he let off these people if they return their assets?” he asked.

Citing Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde’s resignation — he later took it back following the intervention by senior BJP leader LK Advani — over the chief minister’s “refusal to act against his corrupt ministerial colleagues”, Hariprasad said corruption and nepotism have become the order of the day in Karnataka.