Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar addressing the public at the Congress’ Janandolana rally in Mysuru on Friday.
| Photo Credit: M.A. SRIRAM
The Janandolana rally of the Congress provided a platform for Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to train his guns on Union Minister and JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy as he threatened to disclose and make public ‘’50 denotification cases’’ involving the latter.
The rally was held in the city on Friday to counter the BJP-JD(S) padayatra to turn the heat on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who is accused of involvement in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam pertaining to irregularities in site allotment.
‘Will expose corruption’
Mr. Shivakumar said he was tipped off by officials of the cases against Mr. Kumaraswamy on denotification and said he would soon gather information and expose his corrupt deeds. The Lokayukta had also written to the Governor seeking permission to probe and question Mr. Kumaraswamy but he joined hands with the BJP to save his skin, said Mr. Shivakumar.
Lashing out at the JD(S) leader, Mr. Shivakumar said nobody was allowed to grow in the party by Mr. Kumaraswamy and even Mr. Siddaramaiah who was the Deputy Chief Minister, was not spared. ‘’When H.D. Deve Gowda was the Prime Minister, his party had 17 MPs but none of them is in the JD(S) at present,” remarked Mr. Shivakumar. He also accused the JD(S) leader of foisting a case against his nephew (Prajwal Revanna) so as to ensure the political growth of his son (Nikhil Kumaraswamy).
Lashing out at the Opposition in the State, Mr. Shivakumar said the BJP had overthrown many governments through ‘Operation Lotus’ but it cannot replicate the same this time around in Karnataka. He cited electoral statistics from the 2023 Assembly elections and said that Congress had 43% vote share while the vote share in the parliamentary elections increased to 45%. The Congress won nine seats in the parliamentary elections and hence the Opposition is under delusion that it can bring down the State government, which is impossible, said Mr. Shivakumar.
HDK hits back
Reacting in New Delhi to the tirade against him, Mr. Kumaraswamy said Mr. Shivakumar lacked the “manliness” to confront him politically and was indulging in “cheap rhetoric”. “In a democracy, people will decide who wins and who loses. You do your politics right and be warned not to provoke me,” he said, referring to Mr. Shivakumar’s allegations.
