BJP offered Rs 50 crore each to 50 Congress MLAs to remove Karnataka govt: CM Siddaramaiah

On Wednesday, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that the opposition BJP has given 50 Congress MLAs Rs 50 crore apiece in exchange for overthrowing his administration.

He said none of the Congress MLAs agreed with it, due to which the BJP is now resorting to filing false cases against him.”To overthrow the Siddaramaiah government somehow, they (BJP) offered Rs 50 crore to 50 MLAs. Where did they get so much money from? Did former Chief Ministers B S Yediyurappa, Basavaraj Bommai, Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka, BJP state president B Y Vijayendra print the money?” Siddaramaiah asked after inaugurating public works worth Rs 470 crore in the T Narasipura assembly constituency in Mysuru district.He said it was all ”bribe money”.”They have made crores of rupees. Using the money, they offered Rs 50 crore to each MLA,” the chief minister alleged.”But none of our MLAs agreed for it this time.

For this reason, they have launched an effort to overthrow this government in some way. “They are filing false cases for that reason,” Siddaramaiah stated.In the Karnataka Assembly, which has 224 members, the Congress has 133 MLAs, while the BJP and its ally JD(S) have 65 and 18 MLAs, respectively.Siddaramaiah charged that the BJP was using the ED, CBI, and Income Tax to intimidate the chief ministers of any state that was not ruled by the BJP.Siddaramaiah said the MUDA site allocation scandal, in which the Lokayukta had filed a case against him, his brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy, and his wife Parvathi B M, “100 percent false.”He said that rather than entering politics recently, he has been involved for several decades and was appointed a minister for the first time.

He further said he was twice the leader of the opposition, twice the deputy chief minister and twice the chief minister and there were no stains on him.”Today they (BJP) have filed a false case saying that Siddaramaiah and his wife have taken 14 sites. Do Siddaramaiah require politics for 14 sites? They (opposition) think people are fool. So long as I have the blessings of people, I will not yield or get cowed,” he said.

He claimed that the opposition BJP and its ally JD(S) had fabricated cases, made unfounded accusations, and abused their authority by exploiting the governor and the ED.They experimented with misusing agencies on a large number of people. They tried it on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Soren (Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren), and now they’re trying it on me,” the chief minister stated.He claimed that the BJP was fabricating cases since the five guarantees he had imposed were meant to help the underprivileged.According to Siddaramaiah, the BJP obtained power twice—in 2008 and 2019—by a shady means because they lacked popular support.

In the 224-member Karnataka assembly, he noted, the BJP won 110 seats in 2008 and 104 seats in 2019.In order to gain power in 2019, the chief minister asserted that the BJP had spent Rs 30 crore to purchase 17 MLAs, three from the JD(S) and fourteen from the Congress. ”They gave Rs 30 crore to each MLA. Where did they get so much money? Isn’t it corruption money? On the other hand, Congress got 120 seats in 2013 and 136 seats in 2023,” Siddaramaiah said.