BJP fires fresh salvo at Congress over K’taka land allotment row

PTI, Aug 28, 2024, 8:57 PM IST

The BJP on Wednesday launched a fresh attack at the Congress over alleged irregularities in allocation of land to a trust run by the AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s family in Karnataka and said the state is witnessing one after another case of corruption since the party came to power.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party national spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi claimed that the Karnataka government allocated the land to Kharge’s family in Bengaluru without any auction.

“On February 14, Karnataka government’s department of social justice and welfare had asked for the piece of land for social welfare but it was not allotted to it. It is alleged that the land was allocated to Kharge family even though 72 applicants were in queue,” he said.

“I want to ask the Karnataka government why e-auction was not done for the allocation of land?” he said.

Ever since the Congress formed its government in Karnataka, “one after another chapter of corruption” is coming to the fore in the state, Trivedi charged.

“They do not conduct e-auction because they believe in DBC, direct benefit to Congress. When the BJP was at helm, it was taking Karnataka on the path of development. Now the development of few leaders of the Congress is happening in the state,” he said.

BJP leader Lahar Singh Siroya, also a Rajya Sabha member, had on Sunday questioned the allocation of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) land to the trust run by Kharge’s family and asked when did they become aerospace entrepreneurs to be eligible for the land.

He had also sought to know whether the case was about misuse of power, nepotism and conflict of interest.

Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil said on Monday that the educational trust run by AICC president Kharge’s son Rahul Kharge was allotted a ‘Civic Amenity’ plot at Aerospace park at a prescribed price in accordance with the norms.

In a statement, Patil dismissed the allegations made by Siroya and insisted that no rules were violated in the process.