Shah's remark on state govt triggers BJP-Cong slugfest

The state BJP and the Congress engaged in a slugfest on Monday, a day after BJP national president Amit Shah dubbed the state government the most corrupt in the country.

Speaking on the sidelines of an event, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah charged that Shah was a murder accused and had Narendra Modi not become prime minister, he (Shah) would have been languishing in jail.

At a Other Backward Classes (OBC) convention of the BJP in Bengaluru on Sunday, Shah had termed the Siddaramaiah government as the most corrupt in the country and had stated that the time had come to weed it out. 

On Monday, Siddaramaiah said Shah had no moral right to speak about the state government. “The BJP has leaders who have gone to jail and who keep currency counting machines with them. These are the people who make charges of corruption against us,” he said.

He rubbished BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa’s claim that the party would resolve issues like Mahadayi dispute within 24 hours of coming to power. “Why did the BJP not do it when they ruled the state?” he asked.

Later in the afternoon, BJP state general secretary C T Ravi countered Siddaramaiah’s charges. Ravi said Siddaramaiah neither had knowledge of law nor common sense, he said.

He said the UPA government had conspired against Shah, misused the office of the CBI and had framed him in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh encounter case. However, Shah had been cleared of the charges, he said.

He said Yeddyurappa had been acquitted by the courts of corruption charges. “Siddaramaiah should procure the order copies and read them,” Ravi said.

Ravi said Siddaramaiah himself faced several charges including illegal denotification of land in Arkavathi Layout, misusing his office to secure a contract for his son to set up a diagnostic laboratory inside the premises of a government hospital among others.