Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday dismissed as “politically motivated and baseless” the Opposition BJP’s allegation that the cash seized by the Income Tax Department in recent raids here belonged to the Congress party.
“It’s a political statement and baseless allegation. Are there Congress contractors and BJP contractors? I call them BJP contractors. Where is the evidence?” Siddaramaiah said.
BJP on Sunday alleged that the cash including Rs 42 crore seized from a contractor and his son was linked to Congress and that the Siddaramaiah government was using the State as an “ATM” (Automated Teller Machine).
On former Chief Minister and JD (S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy’s demand for a probe into the I-T raids, Siddarmaiah said, “Why should we investigate? It’s income tax which should probe it. I-T had raided and they should investigate. Why my government should do it? Where’s the allegation against the (state) government?”
There cannot be any investigation based on a politically motivated statement, the Chief Minister said. To a query on BJP’s allegation that the seized cash was meant to be pumped into the coming elections in five states, Siddaramaiah said, “We have no connection with it (money). Those states which are going to polls should fight on their own. When we fought the elections, did we go to other states asking for money? It is the people who bless. Our state has no connection with (elections in) other states.”
When asked about the BJP leader C.T. Ravi’s allegation that there is a target of collecting Rs 1,000 crore for the Congress in Karnataka for funding the party to fight the Assembly polls, Siddaramaiah alleged that the former only speaks lies and he will not react to his allegation. “Can anyone ask Karnataka to collect Rs 1,000 crore? Till now our high command has not asked us for even five paise,” he said.