Former chief minister and Janata Dal (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Sunday said that the national parties such as the Congress and BJP were offering Rs 500 to1,000 per vote and urged the voters to be cautious of such tricks.

In his hard-hitting public speech against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah at Hampinagar ward on Sunday while campaigning for the party candidate, the former chief minister said, “If you sell your vote for Rs 500 or 1,000, the money may suffice for a day. But what you should be getting is employment. Remember this fact before getting lured away by money.”

He said that the chief minister had realised that the Congress manifesto had nothing to offer for development of the City and now Siddaramaiah was planning to release a vision document.

He said that Siddaramaiah as a leader of the Opposition did nothing to expose the corrupt BJP. “And as chief minister too he did precious little to take action against the BJP. Why did he fail to take action when taxpayers’ money was being looted,” Kumaraswamy questioned.

Listing out various scams which he claimed to have exposed over the years, Kumaraswamy said files pertaining to scams were reduced to ashes at the BBMP headquarters. Siddaramaiah did not talk about it while the JD (S) exposed the scam, he said.

‘My claims vindicated’

JD (S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said that when he exposed the betting scam, he had named an IAS officer whose apartments were raided by an investigating agency on August 5 in the City.

Referring to the raids on IAS officer Kapil Mohan’s apartments, Kumaraswamy said, “The officer’s name was the first to figure in my list of corrupt officers. It is now said he has properties worth Rs 500 crore. I had also named police officers who were involved in the lottery betting, and the same has been proved”.
However, he did not mention the name of the IAS officer.