After facing severe flak over receiving expensive Hublot watch as a gift, a new controversy has struck former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as reports have now emerged that one of his close confidants has gifted him with a brand new Mercedes car worth Rs 1.8 crore.
According to the reports, Hebbal Congress MLA Bhyrathi Suresh, who is known to be a close aide of Congress leader and former CM Siddaramaiah gifted him a brand new expensive Mercedes Benz SUV causing huge controversy. The timing of receiving such gifts amidst the huge farm crisis looming over the state seems to have exposed the insensitivity of the Congress leaders.
Bhyrathi Suresh, who represents Hebbal is one of the richest politicians of the state with a net worth of Rs 416 crore. Suresh, along with his brother Bhyrathi Basavaraj-KR Puram MLA, is known to be from Siddaramaiah faction of the Karnataka Congress and incidentally hails from Kuruba community.
However, as soon as the news went viral, Suresh quickly denied that he had gifted the expensive car to the former CM, claimed that it was his car and had parked it in front of Siddaramaiah’s residence.
“I have not given Siddaramaiah any car. This is my car and I had parked it in front of his house. He may not even be aware of this,” Suresh stated and continued to state that his vehicles are always at the disposal of his friends, including Siddaramaiah.
Congress strongman DK Shivakumar, too, refuted these reports of Congress MLA gifting Mercedes-Benz car to Siddaramaiah, he said, “There is no gift or anything. We also sometimes take our friends’ vehicle to travel. There is no issue. Is there any record that he has received a gift or anything? Nothing, no record.”
Siddaramaiah’s love for gifts is not a closed secret anymore as this is not the first time he has allegedly accepted gifts from his party members and supporters. Earlier, Siddaramaiah was accused of receiving an expensive Hublot watch worth Rs 70 Lakh from a fugitive named Vijay Eshwaran, after which Siddaramaiah had to receive a huge backlash across the state.
In June 2018, KJ George, another close confidant of Siddaramaiah had gifted him a Toyota Land Cruiser to Siddaramaiah with fuel coupons for a year. George had explained that he had given the SUV to Siddaramaiah as the latter was not comfortable driving long distances in an Innova.
