The entire top leadership of the Congress is involved in corruption relating to land transactions and they should resign on moral grounds after being “exposed”, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged on Monday, referring to alleged land irregularities involving the families of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah.
The BJP’s attack came after a trust run by the Kharge family returned the five-acre land in Bengaluru to the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB), following a complaint of irregularities in its allotment. Kharge’s son and chairperson of the Siddhartha Vihar Trust, Rahul M Kharge, wrote to KIADB CEO on September 20, 2024, withdrawing his request for the allotment of five acres of civic amenity site to set up a “Multi-Skill Development Centre, Training Institutes and Research Centre”.
The move came close at the heels of Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi returning the 14 sites to the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) after the Lokayukta police registered a case and Enforcement Directorate (ED) initiated a money-laundering probe against the Karnataka CM and others over alleged irregularities in land allotment.
BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi said these decisions were triggered by legal proceedings and amounted to a virtual admission that the transactions were wrong. “It was done to escape humiliation in legal proceedings. These leaders have been exposed,” he alleged at a press conference in Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}BJP spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sudhanshu Trivedi said these decisions were triggered by legal proceedings and amounted to a virtual admission that the transactions were wrong. “It was done to escape humiliation in legal proceedings. These leaders have been exposed,” he alleged at a press conference in Delhi.
{{/usCountry}}Targeting the Congress, Trivedi alleged that the party, which was once associated with Mahatma Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave’s “bhoodan” (giving away land in charity) movement, is now neck deep in “bhu-harap” (land grab).
The BJP leader noted that top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are accused in the National Herald case, pertaining to alleged capture of the firm’s properties at a highly nominal rate. He alleged that similar land-related allegations have been levelled against senior Congress leaders and former CMs Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel, as well as Karnataka deputy CM DK Shivakumar, among others.
“It clearly shows that the entire top leadership of the Congress is involved in corruption involving land-grabbing,” Trivedi alleged. “Today, Siddaramaiah and Mallikarjun Kharge are offering to return the plots linked to the land scam. It’s not because their conscience has awakened… but to avoid the humiliation of court proceedings.”
The MUDA case pertains to allegations of illegalities in the allotment of 14 sites to Siddaramaiah’s wife by the Mysuru authority in lieu of a land parcel in Kesare. While the CM has claimed that the land parcel was gifted to his wife by her brother Mallikarjuna in 1998, RTI activist Snehamayi Krishna has alleged that the land was actually acquired illegally by Mallikarjuna in 2004, using forged documents with the help of government officials.
The allegations against Kharge family surfaced after activist Dinesh Kallahalli in March this year filed a complaint with Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot, accusing the Congress chief’s family of benefiting from irregularities in the land allotment process by KIADB under the party-led government in the southern state.
Former Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar also targeted the Congress, alleging its leaders of land grabbing. “It is clear that Congress talks about the poor during elections but when it comes to power, the first thing they do is give land to their own family members...,” he alleged.
BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla demanded the resignation of Kharge and Siddaramaiah. “This is a huge vindication for the BJP which was always saying with facts that the Kharge family has benefited from illegal allotment of the land through misuse of power, conflict of interest and nepotism...They try to return the land after being in denial. This is the acceptance of corruption,” he said. “Mallikarjun Kharge and Siddaramaiah must resign.”