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Siddaramaiah, BSY dismiss Kumaraswamy’s secret meeting claim
Kumaraswamy on Tuesday alleged that two others who occupied the top post in the chair were holding meetings as a result of which the Income Tax (I-T) raids were unleashed in an effort to “control” Yediyurappa.
Senior Congress member and leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday dismissed JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy’s claim that both the leaders had secret late night meeting.
Kumaraswamy on Tuesday alleged that two others who occupied the top post in the chair were holding meetings as a result of which the Income Tax (I-T) raids were unleashed in an effort to “control” Yediyurappa.
“I had gone to meet Yediyurappa on his birthday. I had not met him personally as chief minister or as the Leader of Opposition. I have not met him (personally) till today. We both were in the same hospital when we were infected by Corona, even then we had not met,” Siddaramaiah said.
The Congress leader said that it was actually Kumaraswamy who held multiple meetings with Yediyurappa when the latter was the chief minister. Terming the claims as ‘blatant lies’, Siddaramaiah said that he would retire from politics if Kumaraswamy can prove that he had met Yediyurappa.
Yediyurappa also took to social media to rubbish the claims made by his predecessor.
“Other than my birthday on February 27, 2020, I have not personally met Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah. I have no need to have such a meeting. We in the party are working to bring BJP back to power in the state,” Yediyurappa said in a post on Twitter.
He added that his only goal was to bring back BJP to power in 2023 and has been working on the same.
“I have never compromised on the ideology that I have believed in, and will never compromise in the future. As Siddaramaiah has clarified that no such meeting has taken place, I’m too clarifying that the reports in the media in this regard are far from truth and meaningless,” Yediyurappa added.
The claims and denial come at a time when the three major political parties in Karnataka are gearing up for the October 30 bypolls in Hanagal and Sindgi that has evolving into a huge electoral battle for all the outfits in the state.
Kumaraswamy has been actively making statements against the Congress and the BJP as the former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda-led party is shrug off the tab that it is in a tacit alliance with the saffron outfit to take on the Congress, which they both consider the common enemy.
The recent IT raids on close associates of Yediyurappa had given the political opposition another opportunity to attack BJP and its internal rumblings which had led to the 78-year-old stepping down from the top post on July 26.
Kumaraswamy on Tuesday hinted that the IT raids on Yediyurappa was part of a possible ₹20,000 crore irrigation scam, as alleged even by BJP legislator AH Vishwanath.
“Anyone with the slightest understanding of politics can understand that the recent IT raids were for what reasons. IT raids were with a political motive and it is to control or checkmate Yediyurappa as both (Siddaramaiah and Yediyurappa) had a late night meeting about political developments, and the BJP that has government both at the centre and state got to know about it from their sources, and probably have tightened things,” Kumaraswamy had said.
Though the three chief ministers have spared no opportunity to criticise the other, they have worked together in the past as JD(S) has allied with both national parties at the state level as well as smaller district, zilla and taluka units.
Karnataka’s politics has been defined, in recent years, by coalition building abilities through which Siddaramaiah, Deve Gowda and Yediyurappa have remained relevant in state politics and have seldom allowed Delhi to dictate terms.
