Congress plans to target Karnataka BJP over corruption plank

“We have been highlighting the issue of corruption in state government contracts. We will continue to raise every issue affecting the people of the state," AICC secretary in charge of Karnataka, Kuldeep Rai Sharma told ETV Bharat's Amit Agnihotri

New Delhi:The Congress has found a solid issue in the suicide of a BJP worker who did not get justice from his party leaders in Karnataka with the grand old party trying to counter the state BJP over corruption charges ahead of assembly polls next year. Recently, Rahul Gandhi launched the party’s poll campaign when he attacked the state government accusing it of demanding a 40 per cent commission from contractors in all government contracts.

The issue took a serious turn when Santosh Patil, a BJP worker and a contractor who had alleged that Karnataka minister K.S. Eshwarappa’s associates had asked for 40 per cent commission to clear his bills, was found dead in a lodge in Udupi on Tuesday. Congress slammed the state and the central government over the matter and demanded a probe by a Supreme Court judge since Santosh had blamed Eshwarappa in his suicide note.

Soon after, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai ordered a police investigation into the case saying an impartial inquiry will be conducted but the Congress was not convinced. AICC secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Kuldeep Rai Sharma told ETV Bharat: “We have been highlighting the issue of corruption in state government contracts. We will continue to raise every issue affecting the people of the state.”

On Wednesday, the grand old party upped the ante against the BJP alleging that corruption in the state government had taken the life of a BJP worker and was affecting the image of the progressive state. AICC in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala demanded the arrest of minister Eshwarappa and targeted the top BJP leadership.

“Arrest the minister immediately on charges of murder and corruption to give justice to a BJP worker. Why are the PM, CM, and the BJP chief silent on the matter,” Surjewala said in a tweet. “The deafening silence of the BJP points to complicity in corruption at the highest levels of power,” he said. Karnataka Congress chief DK Shivakumar, who had been targeting the Bommai government over alleged corruption, led a party delegation, along with CLP leader K Siddaramaiah, to submit a memorandum before Governor Thawarchand Gehlot, urging him to remove minister Eshwarappa.

“We are not going to sit silent over this injustice and let the state sink further. The law must be held supreme both for a minister as well as a common man,” he told reporters. Noting that “Santosh's death was a murder and not a suicide,” Shivakumar said, “the unease of doing business in the state was denting the state’s image and affecting job creation.”

“The BJP won’t even have the minister arrested because the whole government is a 40 percent commission government,” he said. Earlier, four Karnataka Congress leaders including Dr L Hanumanthaiah and Syed Naseer Hussain had flagged the alleged corruption in state government contracts in Delhi demanding action in the matter. They had cited earlier communications of the Contractors Association to support their claim.