CM Siddaramaiah asks PM to speak on alleged corruption in COVID-19 management during BJP rule
Mysuru (Karnataka) (PTI): Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak on the alleged corruption in COVID-19 management when the BJP was in power in the state.
He charged the Prime Minister with lying when asked about his allegation that the Congress government in Karnataka had raised Rs 700 crore from liquor vendors to fund the Maharashtra Assembly elections.
Siddaramaiah sought to know what the Prime Minister had to say about the alleged irregularities in the COVID-19 management.
A Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kit that costs Rs 330 per piece was purchased for over Rs 2,100 per piece by the then BJP government in the State, the Chief Minister alleged.
"All the scams took place during the BJP government. Our government did not do any corruption and will not indulge in such acts. The Prime Minister is lying," Siddaramaiah said.
"Let him prove it (the allegation), I will retire from politics (if it's proven). Will he step down from the PM post if he fails to prove it? There should be some limit to lying," he said.
On the Enforcement Directorate's probe into the MUDA site allotment case in which he, his wife Parvathi B M and his brother-in-law Mallikarjuna Swamy are among the accused, Siddaramaiah said let the ED question whoever it wants to.
"I will not comment on the ED probe but all that I can say is it is investigating a false case," the Chief Minister said.
To a question on re-inducting Ballari Rural Congress MLA B Nagendra into the cabinet, Siddaramaiah said the legislator had spoken to him in this regard on Tuesday.
The Chief Minister said he had told Nagendra that he would consider it once the byelections to three Assembly segments in Karnataka are over.
Nagendra, who was the Scheduled Tribes Welfare, Youth Empowerment and Sports Minister, resigned from the Cabinet in June this year over the alleged scam in the state-run Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation Ltd.
The Chief Minister said there is no proposal before the government to lift the night ban on vehicular traffic in Bandipur tiger reserve in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
ECI website faces outage amid vote counting in Jharkhand, Maharashtra
New Delhi: Election Commission of India’s official results website ‘results.eci.gov.in’ has reportedly experienced a technical outage on Saturday morning, at a time when India closely watches the high-stakes Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly poll battle.
Visitors visiting the site were met with non-functional links and a generic “counting in progress” message, leaving them without updated election data. The ECI has not issued an official explanation for the disruption.
Vote counting, which began at 8 a.m. with postal ballots, is underway for 288 assembly seats in Maharashtra and 81 in Jharkhand. Early trends suggest a lead for the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance in Maharashtra, currently ahead in 141 seats, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) is leading in 96. In Jharkhand, the BJP-led NDA is ahead in 43 seats, while the ruling JMM-led alliance is trailing with leads in 33 constituencies.
Additionally, counting is underway for 48 assembly bypolls across 13 states and two parliamentary seats, Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala.
