Opposition facing political insecurity, says Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah “categorically” denied corruption allegations against his 54-day-old government and claimed that the Opposition is hurling claims because of “political insecurity”.

Siddaramaiah said this while giving the government’s reply to the debate on the motion of thanks to the Governor’s address.

“I categorically deny allegations of corruption. The allegations are a figment of their (Opposition) imagination. They have nothing else to say about our government,” Siddaramaiah said.

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He said he has not effected a single transfer in departments that come under him such as commercial taxes, treasury, DPAR and so on.

“It is laughable to say that there’s corruption just because transfers happened. There were transfers that happened under the previous government. So, was there corruption then?” Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah said his government is implementing the Congress’ five guarantees. “This has created political fear and instability for the Opposition. That’s perhaps why they’re making such allegations, which are baseless,” he charged.

The chief minister said his government has started investigations into corruption allegations against the previous BJP regime.

Referring to BJP’s Basavaraj Bommai seeking a probe into all corruption allegations since 2013, Siddaramaiah said: “The BJP was in power for 3 years 10 months. They had all the power. They could have probed corruption allegations against us. Why wasn’t that done? That’s because they had no evidence for the allegations.” Siddaramaiah even declared that his first government (2013-18) was “scam-free”.

Bommai said he would welcome an investigation. “When you were in power, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) filed ‘B’ reports. After the Lokayukta was resurrected, we referred several cases. And, if you’re saying there’s no evidence against you, then probe the allegations,” he said.

‘Haven’t burdened poor’

Siddaramaiah told the Legislative Assembly that he has not burdened the poor and the lower-middle class in his 2023-24 budget while mobilising resources for the Congress’ five guarantees.

“I had to provide an additionality of Rs 35,410 crore to the guarantees,” Siddaramaiah said, adding that he chose to hike excise duty, revise guidance values on property registrations, motor vehicle taxes and hike the mines & geology targets. “The additional resource mobilisation will give us Rs 13,500 crore,” he said.

BJP walks out

The BJP walked out of the Assembly, accusing the Congress government of being “anti-poor”.

Bommai charged that the government is not implementing the guarantees as promised. Siddaramaiah accused the BJP government at the Centre of denying rice to the state.