‘He is clean’: Minister Ramalinga Reddy rules out CM Siddaramaiah’s resignation after MUDA case verdict

BENGALURU: Endowment  Minister Ramalinga Reddy on Tuesday ruled out the resignation of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after the High Court dismissed the latter’s plea challenging the governor’s sanction to prosecute him in the alleged MUDA land allotment scam.

Ramalinga Reddy said that the entire cabinet and the Congress will stand by the Chief Minister. “He is a ‘clean hand’ Chief Minister. We don’t find a Chief Minister like this. He is a 100  per cent clean-handed man. BJP people are the most corrupt people in India, there is no value to their words. Now, the single-judge bench has upheld the Governor’s permission”, Ramalinga Reddy told reporters here.

“There is a double bench, full bench, Supreme Court. We will fight. BJP doesn’t have the moral right to ask for Siddaramaiah’s resignation. Not only Congress but the entire cabinet, MLAs and the High Command will stand by CM Siddaramaiah. Why should he resign? There is a denotification case against Yediyurappa and Kumaraswamy, let them resign first”, he added.

The BJP however has taken the fight to the Congress demanding the immediate resignation of Siddaramiah on moral grounds. BJP leader C T Ravi said, “Law is same for everyone…After the Karnataka High Court’s judgment, CM Siddaramaiah should resign…Every corrupt leader says that he will not resign. CM Siddaramaiah is a corrupt leader”.

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed Siddaramaiah’s petition challenging the approval given by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for conducting investigation against him in the alleged illegalities in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) allotting sites to his wife.

In his judgment, the single judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna said that the order of sanction for prosecution does not suffer from non-application of mind by the governor.

In his petition Siddaramaiah questioned the legality of the sanction granted by the governor permitting investigation against him under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act and prosecution under Section 218 of Bharatiya Nagarik Surakha Sanhita, 2023.

Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot granted sanction on August 17 on the applications filed by two Bengaluru-based social activists Pradeep Kumar S P and T J Abraham and Mysuru-based social activist Snehamayi Krishna. It is alleged that MUDA illegally allotted 14 sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife in the prime location of Mysuru city.

The High Court, in its interim order passed on August 19, had granted a temporary relief to Siddaramaiah by directing a special court in Bengaluru to defer further proceedings and not to take any precipitative action pursuant to the sanction granted by the Governor.

On August 31, the office of the Karantaka Governor told the high court in the state that the sanction granted to prosecute Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah in the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam was done after “application of mind.” (ANI)