Mysuru MP Pratap Simha questions whether CM Siddaramaiah has ‘understanding’ with certain BJP leaders

BENGALURU, MYSURU: Days after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national general secretary C T Ravi said that his party’s government did not order a probe against Congress leader Siddaramaiah in the Arkavathy denotification case, Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha on Tuesday alleged that some of his own party leaders may have had a secret understanding with Siddaramaiah.

Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, Pratap Simha, while training his guns at the Congress, said, “With a letter written by Kempanna, who is not even a contractor, the Congress leaders went to town accusing the BJP government of taking 40 per cent commission, but they did not lodge a complaint with the Lokayukta or the Anti-Corruption Bureau. When the BJP government was in power, there was much noise about the Arkavathy denotification redo, the Justice Kempanna report (which probed the alleged illegal denotification of land in Arkavathy Layout), but our people did not let the snake out of the box”.

Further, he said, “Siddaramaiah too made allegations against the BJP on the PSI recruitment scam, the bitcoin scam, but he is now quiet about it. If he does not have ties with some BJP leaders, then he should order an investigation. This is like ‘I scratch your back, you scratch mine’, Simha remarked. “Some big leaders in the BJP may not speak about Siddaramaiah, some may have some sort of understanding with him. But the BJP workers have never and will never align with him,” he said.

Even when senior BJP leader B S Yediyurappa was chief minister, a similar situation had cropped up in the Congress with some leaders alleging that Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar do not talk against the then CM. The issue had even reached the party high command following with AICC general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala held a meeting with the two leaders and got them to hold a few press conferences against the then government.