Congress high-command has not asked us even for five paise: K’taka CM dismisses BJP allegations

PTI, Oct 16, 2023, 3:02 PM IST

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday dismissed as ”politically motivated and baseless” the opposition BJP’s allegation that the cash seized by the Income Tax Department in recent Income Tax raids here belonged to the Congress party.

”It’s a political statement and baseless allegation. Are there Congress contractors and BJP contractors? I call them BJP contractors. Where is the evidence?” Siddaramaiah told reporters.

BJP on Sunday alleged that the cash including Rs 42 crore seized from a contractor and his son was linked to the Congress and that the Siddaramaiah government was using the State as an ”ATM”.

To a query on BJP’s allegation that the seized cash was meant to be pumped into the coming elections in five States, Siddaramaiah said, ”We have no connection with it (money). Those states which are going to polls should fight on their own. When we fought the elections, did we go to other states asking for money? It is the people who bless. Our state has no connection with (elections in) other states.” When asked about C T Ravi’s allegation that there is a target of collecting Rs 1,000 crore for the Congress in Karnataka for funding the party to fight the assembly polls, Siddaramaiah said he would not react to the allegation by the BJP leader who ”only speaks lies”.

”Can anyone ask Karnataka to collect Rs 1,000 crore? Till now our high command has not asked us even for five paise,” he said.

On former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy’s demand for a probe into the I-T raids , Siddarmaiah said, ”Why should we investigate? It’s Income Tax which should probe it. I-T had raided and they should investigate. Why my government should do it? Where’s the allegation against the (state) government?” There cannot be any investigation based on a politically motivated statement, the chief minister said.