BENGALURU, 3 JULY

Opposition BJP leaders tried to lay siege to Chief Minister's office-cum-residence here on Wednesday alleging rampant corruption by the ruling Congress government in Karnataka, but they were stopped and taken into preventive custody. The protesting MLAs, MLCs and other party workers were taken to Seshadripuram Police Station and were released in the afternoon. After the protesters were prevented from protesting in front of Chief Minister’s residence, they trooped down to the roads in front of CM’s residence and yelled chants, ‘Dhikhara Dhikara, Sarkara Dikhara’ (Down Down, Government Down).

The party leaders, including BJP State President BY Vijayendra, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, former ministers S Sunil Kumar, Araga Jnanendra, S Suresh Kumar, CN Ashwath Narayan and CT Ravi, were accompanied by MLAs and party workers. Due to the heavy deployment of police forces, the BJP leaders could not reach their destination and were taken under preventive custody. The party has alleged that there was around Rs 4,000 crore worth of alternative sites’ (plots) scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) in which one of the beneficiaries is Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's wife Parvathi. The party also charged that there were attempts to cover up over Rs 180 crore Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation scam, which forced accounts superintendent P Chandrasekharan to die by suicide.

“The MUDA scam in the Chief Minister's home district Mysuru is much bigger than the scam in the Valmiki Corporation," Vijayendra said before being taken into preventive custody. Ashoka demanded that the government should hand over the MUDA scam to CBI instead of assigning the case to a panel of IAS officers to probe the matter. He also demanded that the Chief Minister should resign from his position. Malleshwaram MLA CN Ashwathnarayan said, “Siddaramaiah is running the most corrupt government and it is looting the State and its people.” Hubballi-Dharwad West MLA Aravind Bellad asked how can such scandals happen without the knowledge of the Chief Minister.  Dismissing the charge as false, Siddaramaiah rejected the BJP’s demand for the CBI probe into the case. "I have already ordered an inquiry. BJP has no moral right to make such demands. Why are they asking us to assign this case to CBI when they did not hand over a single case to the investigation agency during its tenure in the state," he said. – Salar News/PTI