No development but loot, are you not ashamed? Siddaramaiah slams Nadda

Bengaluru: A day after BJP National president J.P. Nadda hailed the party-led state government as 'bribe-free', Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday junked the claim as a lie. He said that except loot, no developmental work were carried out in the state.

"After BJP came to power in the state three-and-a-half years ago, except loot, no developmental work took place. You are lying, Nadda when you call the BJP government a bribe-free government. Are you not ashamed?" the Congress leader said at a public meeting in Koppal.

He asked the Chief Ministers (belonging to BJP), including the incumbent Basavaraj Bommai and his immediate predecessor B S Yediyurappa to go to the people with report card.

The Congress leader alleged that there is a 40 per cent commission government in Karnataka, which is known to everyone in the state. The contractor association president, too, had said the Ministers charge 40 per cent commission, he added.

"Even the walls of Vidhana Soudha are whispering that yours is a corrupt government. There is bribe for recruitment, transfer, promotion and posting. They not only collect money in government schemes," the Leader of the Opposition said.

In this context, Siddaramaiah recalled that a contractor Santosh Patil earlier this year died allegedly by suicide as he could not pay a bribe of 40 per cent for a civil work.

The Congress leader claimed that differences have cropped up between Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and his predecessor Yediyurappa.

"Yediyurappa was simply removed from the post of chief minister and in his place Bommai was installed because the BJP wanted someone who can dance to the tune of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh," he charged.

Siddaramaiah likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a headmaster and Union Home Minister Amit Shah as the assistant headmaster before who people have to stand with their hands tied, as no one has the courage.

-PTI Inputs