Kumaraswamy to target CM for allegedly accepting donations from land developers and mining barons in return for official favours
Kumaraswamy to target CM for allegedly accepting donations from land developers and mining barons in return for official favours
Continuing its onslaught against the Chief Minister, JD(S) is expected to raise graft issues linked to Yeddyurappa in the Lok Sabha today. Former CM and JD(S) state unit chief H D Kumaraswamy, has alleged that an educational trust run by Yeddyurappa's sons is accepting donations from land developers and mining barons in return of government favours. As a section of the BJP high command is baying for Yeddyurappa's blood,u00a0 in a calculated move, Kumaraswamy has decided to raise this issue at a press conference in Delhi while Parliament is in session. 
Under attack: H D Kumaraswamy to target Yeddyurappa at press
conference in New Delhi, while his brother H D Revanna will raise the
issue in Vidhan Soudha. Pic/Satish Badiger
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Kumaraswamy is allegedly flanked by senior leaders from the left parties and his father H D Deve Gowda. And the intention is clear: pressurise the BJP to take action against Yeddyurappa, while the principal opposition party is attacking the Congress on the floor of the house on corruption issues.
"I think the BJP high command is not able to take action against one of its most corrupt chief ministers because of its own reasons," said Kumaraswamy. "But, I will not stop here. I am going to raise the issue in the Lok Sabha and see how the BJP reacts," he added.
Allegations
Kumaraswamy said that the trust managed by Yeddyurappa's sons, which is running an engineering college inu00a0 Shimoga, had received Rs 27.18 crore from corporate companies including a noted developer and a steel firm.
He alleged that the CM's office influenced the revenue department to stall action against developers that had encroached on government land. And that the steel firm had obtained government clearance for its projects just before the donation was made.
"The idea was to convey a message to the BJP high command that it could not attack the Congress on corruption issues without punishing Yeddyurappa. In fact, it has helped detractors in the BJP to build a strong case against him," said a source in the JD(S).
Summoned to Delhi
As if endorsing this view, BJP national president Nitin Gadkari summoned the CM to Delhi seeking an explanation, the day Kumaraswamy made his allegations. However, Yeddyurappa came out unscathed after the meeting.
While Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda attack the BJP on its double standards in the Lok Sabha, Revanna, legislator party leader of the JD(S), will lash at the CM in the assembly and he convened a meeting of the JD(S) legislators yesterday to chalk out plans.
Yeddy under attack
"We are going to attack the CM simultaneously in the Lok Sabha and the assembly," said Milind Dharmasena, general secretary of the JD(S). "And we will not rest until the corruption issue reaches its logical end," he added.
The political battle of the JD(S) will not end at this. Party leaders seem to have planned a long-term strategy of regrouping non-Lingayat forces against the BJP, and are in talks with the leaders from the old Janataha parivar including Siddaramiah, leader of the opposition in the assembly, to lure them back to the party fold.
United against CM
Strangely, Reddy brothers, seen as archrivals, are rumored to have agreed to fund the JD(S) in case it puts up a fight against Yeddyurappa, who has become a formidable Lingayat leader. Their grouse against the CM, who has sidelined the mining lords in the BJP, has apparently prompted them to come to terms with Kumaraswamy.
A source close to the Reddys said Jagan Reddy, who has just floated his own political partyu00a0-- YSR Congress Partyu00a0-- in Andhra Pradesh, has shown interest in joining hands with the JD(S) and a major political development was in the offing later this week.
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