Charges proven, dissolve House and quit, BSY tells CM

BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa on Friday demanded that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recommend dissolution of the Assembly as his statements that the state Congress leaders provided payoffs to the party high command were now “proven”.

“Siddaramaiah had stated that he will resign and retire from politics if my charges were proven. The contents of the diary have now been revealed. Siddaramaiah should resign immediately,” Yeddyurappa told reporters in Bengaluru.

A national channel on Thursday had aired the contents of a diary reportedly belonging to Congress MLC K Govindaraj which provided details of payoffs by state Congress members to their national leaders. Yeddyurappa has been mentioning the diary for the past few weeks.

Yeddyurappa said Siddaramaiah should recommend dissolution of the Assembly and go to the people’s court. “Taxpayers money had been looted. It is an unpardonable offence. Siddaramaiah has no option but to resign,” Yeddyurappa said.

On Congress’ charges that the diary is fake, Yeddyurappa said the document was seized by I-T officials from  Govindaraj’s residence, mahajar was done and signatures of two witnesses were obtained. “Let Govindaraj own up and admit that the diary belongs to him. He will be able to lead a respectable life. Otherwise, he is bound to land in deep trouble,” he said.

Yeddyurappa said the “kickbacks” received by Siddaramaiah for the controversial steel flyover had also been exposed in the diary. Asked whether the entire contents of the diary had been revealed, Yeddyurappa said all he knew is that the diary seized by I-T officials had about 24 to 28 pages.

He said what had been exposed is just the tip of the iceberg. “Thousands of crores have been siphoned off in the irrigation and Public Works departments. If a through enquiry is conducted, the truth will come out,” he said.

Shettar wants narco test on Govindaraju

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Jagadish Shettar has said that narco analysis should be conducted on Congress MLC K Govindaraju to unearth the truth in the diary, which reportedly mentions payments made to top Congress leaders, reports DHNS from Hubballi.

“The diary has entries on huge amount of money paid to Congress high command. Though it was found at Govindaraju’s house during an income tax raid, he is now saying that the handwriting in the diary is not his. Therefore, he should be subjected to narco analysis to know the truth,” Shettar told reporters here on Friday.

He demanded a CBI enquiry into the scam. He said that the Congress leaders had criticised state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa, when he first mentioned about the diary.They said that Yeddyurappa had lost mental balance. Now, it is clear that Congress leaders themselves have lost mental balance,” Shettar added.