Plaint against CM reaches Congress high command

Denotification of land in Bengaluru’s Arkavathi Layout is likely to snowball into a major issue with some Congress leaders complaining to the high command against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Party sources said that these leaders have complained that some of the beneficiaries in the denotifications are close to the chief minister. The leaders also cautioned the party against possible embarrassment if the matter is taken to court as planned by BJP. They also warned that the saffron party may seek the Governor’s sanction to prosecute Siddaramaiah over the issue.

Some Congress leaders who have been aspiring for the post of chief minister have been camping in the national capital for the past several days and have handed over all documents about the controversy to the party’s top brass, sources told Deccan Herald.

These leaders said that Governor Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala may put the State government in the dock like the then Governor H R Bhardwaj did to former BJP chief minister B S Yeddyurappa. Bhardwaj had, in 2011, accorded sanction to prosecute Yeddyurappa over allegations of denotification of land acquired by the government, apart from other charges, following a plea by two advocates.

The BJP State core committee meeting held here on Monday and attended by the party’s general secretary and State incharge M Muralidar Rao had decided to go to court to take the matter to its “logical” end. The State BJP leaders, who have been discussing with national leaders on the next move, are tightlipped about approaching the Governor.

The acquisition of land for the Arkavathi Layout of the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) has been in the eye of a storm ever since the project was promoted in 2003 by the S M Krishna government.

The Siddaramaiah government, on the basis of a recommendation of the board of the BDA, had approved a remodified scheme for the Arkavathi Layout. It thus denotified 541 acres acquired for the formation of the layout.

Though the chief minister has been maintaining that he had denotified as per the court direction, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Jagadish Shettar has alleged that the chief minister violated six guidelines issued by the High Court of Karnataka in the process.