On Thursday (February 1), Karnataka Congress leader B. Shivaramu accused his own party of corruption. The former Minister targeted party leader and Minister for Cooperation K.N. Rajanna, who is also the Minister in charge of Hassan district over alleged corruption.
In a press meeting on Thursday, Shivaramu stated that the Congress party, which had earlier chastised the BJP government for corruption during its reign, is now dealing with similar challenges. He even said that now the situation has got worse.
During the election campaign for the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023, Congress raked up the issue of a ’40 per cent commission’ to criticise the BJP government. The Congress leader said that there have been discrepancies in allotting funds to Hassan Zilla Panchayat.
Shivaramu pointed out the alleged misallocation of Rs 13 crore released for Hassan Zilla Panchayat, highlighting that Rs 2.5 crore was “unfairly” allocated by the Minister in charge of the district, K N Rajanna, to his community people, who number only about 50,000, while ignoring the Scheduled Castes population of roughly four lakh.
“There have been discrepancies in allotting the amount sanctioned. The Minister in charge of the district has allocated ₹2.5 crore for the welfare of his community people, who are hardly about 50,000. The Scheduled Castes, who are about 4 lakhs, have not received any amount. I have brought this issue to the attention of the district Minister. I told the Chief Minister that the corruption has gone beyond 40% in Hassan,” he said.
“I conveyed this directly to the Chief Minister— our district (Hassan) is gaining a negative reputation. Back in the BJP era, we accused them of 40 per cent corruption; now, it exceeds that,” Shivaramu said.
He stated that the corruption issue must be addressed as he and several party workers are of the same view. “I am stating this straightforwardly, and it’s not just me…most of the candidates who lost in last year’s state Assembly elections are expressing the same. For the party to endure, this needs to be addressed. If I openly discuss this, I am labelled a bad person,” the Congress leader added.
Shivaramu previously stated that he had requested that the district’s in-charge Minister Rajanna visit the district with K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, the district’s only Congress MLA, to motivate the party workers. “The Minister got upset because I expressed my wish. I don’t know why he got angry with me,” Shivaramu said. Meanwhile, Rajanna recently said that he was not concerned about Shivaramu’s remarks on the party.
