Karnataka: Contractors body alleges harassment by Ministers, BJP MLAs for bribe
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka State Contractors' Association on Monday alleged that they are being pestered by the Ministers and ruling BJP MLAs to pay them bribe.
The Association members released before reporters here a purported conversation on WhatsApp and the audio of the conversation with the MLAs seeking money.
According to them, at least 14 MLAs and three or four Ministers were involved in the alleged extortion.
The Association working president Manjunath accused an MLA with arm-twisting an assistant executive engineer to collect bribe from the contractors.
He claimed that he paid money to the MLA directly and also through engineers.
"I've been giving the bribe to the BJP MLA in installments since 2019," Manjunath alleged.
The contractor claimed that he had paid Rs 20 lakh for a hospital construction work, Rs 12.5 lakh for PWD work, Rs 10 lakh during the COVID first wave and Rs 12 lakh during the second.
This apart, he paid Rs 22 lakh for the formation of a residential layout and for its approval from a competent authority in Chitradurga.
Manjunath charged the said MLA with demanding Rs 30 lakh as 'advance commission.'
The Association's charges come at a time when the Congress mounted an attack on the BJP accusing it of running an alleged 40 per cent commission government.
The Congress has been referring to an incident wherein a contractor committed suicide accusing the then Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa of demanding 40 per commission.
The BJP, however, dismissed the allegations by saying there were no credible evidences to act on its partymen.
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BJP has history of ‘contradictory alliances’, says BK Hariprasad
Bengaluru: Congress MLC B. K. Hariprasad has launched a sharp attack on the BJP, accusing the party of hypocrisy over its criticism of alliance politics in Tamil Nadu.
In a post on X on Friday, Hariprasad said BJP leader B. L. Santhosh criticising the Congress party’s alliance politics in Tamil Nadu was “not just laughable, but the height of political contradiction.”
He said the Congress has always joined hands with like-minded parties to protect secular and democratic values in the country.
Hariprasad questioned the BJP over several of its past and present alliances across the country. Referring to Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tripura, Bihar and Maharashtra, he accused the BJP of sharing power with parties it had earlier criticised.
He alleged that the BJP had aligned with separatist and corruption-linked political forces in different states for political gains.
“The BJP, which speaks against alliances today, should first look at its own political history,” he said, adding that the party’s record was full of “contradictions and changing stands.”
Hariprasad also accused the BJP of using central agencies such as the Enforcement Directorate, Income Tax Department and CBI as political tools to target opposition leaders, topple governments and influence electoral mandates.
He further claimed that the people of Tamil Nadu had strongly rejected the BJP and its ideology in the recent election.
“Congress forms alliances to protect the Constitution, secularism and national unity, while the BJP enters into alliances only for power,” he said.
