After the Karnataka High Court dismissed his plea challenging Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s sanction to conduct a probe into the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he was not afraid of a conspiracy by the BJP and the JD(S) and would hold discussions with legal experts and ministers to fight it.
Addressing a press conference, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (Secular) will not succeed in destabilising the Congress government.
“They may have succeeded earlier, but not this time. This is not a prosecution. I will discuss with legal experts and ministers how to fight this and then decide further. We will not be afraid of the conspiracy of the BJP and the JD(S), as well as the Governor’s office. The people have blessed us. I have their blessings. I also have the support of the high command and party leaders,” he said.
He said that the people of the state are with him in this political struggle.
CM Siddaramaiah said, “I believe in the law and the constitution. Truth will ultimately prevail in this battle. This is a fight against the vendetta politics of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government. Our judicial struggle will continue against this vendetta politics of the BJP and JDS. I have faith in the court.”
The Karnataka chief minister further said that all the MLAs, leaders and workers of the Congress high command stand with him and encouraged him to continue the fight.
He said, “The BJP and the JD(S) have resorted to political vendetta against me because I am a supporter of the poor and fighting for social justice. In my 40 years of political life, I have faced such vendetta and conspiracy politics and I have kept winning with the blessings and wishes of the people of the state.”
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also said that the people of Karnataka have not given enough majority to the BJP to come to power on its own and till now it has come to power through unethical means like ‘Operation Lotus’.
He said, “In the last assembly elections, the people of the state gave our party a majority of 136 seats without giving any chance to Operation Lotus. Frustrated by this, BJP and JDS leaders took advantage of the Raj Bhavan and made false allegations against me to trouble our government.”
Meanwhile, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s plea challenging the sanction granted by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for an inquiry against him into alleged illegalities in the allotment of a plot of land to his wife by the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA).
In its judgment, a single bench of Justice Nagaprasanna said that the order granting sanction for prosecution is not affected by the non-exercise of discretion by the Governor.
It is alleged that MUDA illegally allotted 14 plots of land to the wife of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at a prime location in Mysore city. The High Court, in its interim order passed on August 19, granted temporary relief to Siddaramaiah and directed a special court in Bengaluru to suspend further proceedings and not to take any hasty action as per the approval given by the Governor.
