Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah responded to the recent accusations made by JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy regarding a "cash for transfer" racket. In a press conference, Siddaramaiah firmly denied any involvement in such activities and challenged Kumaraswamy to provide evidence to support his claims, as reported by PTI.
Siddaramaiah emphasized that during Kumaraswamy's tenure as Chief Minister, instances of cash for transfers did take place, and he urged the public to scrutinize those allegations instead. "Let him tweet a hundred times, I don't want to reply," Siddaramaiah remarked dismissively.
The ongoing feud escalated when Kumaraswamy attempted to link a widely circulated phone conversation between Siddaramaiah and his son Yathindra to a supposed "cash for postings/transfer" scam. Siddaramaiah vehemently rejected these allegations, asserting that Kumaraswamy was merely attempting to divert attention from his own party's past actions.
Kumaraswamy, in a series of posts on social media platform 'X', accused Siddaramaiah of outsourcing his Varuna constituency to his son Yathindra. Siddaramaiah, who contested from Varuna in the recent elections, defended his decision, stating that Yathindra had previously represented the constituency from 2018 to 2023.
The JD(S) leader further criticized Yathindra, labeling him a "Super Chief Minister" and called for Siddaramaiah's resignation over a video clip. Kumaraswamy questioned the constitutional validity of outsourcing a constituency to a family member and accused Siddaramaiah of giving undue power to his son through a Karnataka Development Programme (KDP) post.
In response, Siddaramaiah maintained that Varuna constituents had willingly chosen him as their representative. He brushed off Kumaraswamy's allegations, stating, "I never outsourced the constituency to my son when I was CM."
The political mudslinging continued with Kumaraswamy taking a jab at Siddaramaiah's approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), humorously redefining CSR as "Corrupt Son Of Siddaramaiah." He questioned whether Siddaramaiah had delegated CSR responsibilities to his son, sarcastically asking if Yathindra was in charge of CSR for all 224 constituencies in the state.
