BJP legisator repeats bribery charge against CM, ruling coalition caught unawares

The ruling JD (S)-BJP coalition in Karnataka suffered a major shock when BJP legislator Janardhan Reddy reiterated his charge that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had collected a bribe of Rs 1.5 billion from the mine owners in the State’s Bellary district.

Reddy’s statement, which came about after much coaxing by the Opposition Congress members in the Legislative Council, caught the ruling coalition unawares. Noisy scenes were witnessed in the House soon after Reddy repeated his charge, forcing Chairman Sachchidanand Khot to adjourn the House.

When the House was discussing issues pertaining to privileges of members of the legislative council on Wednesday, the Opposition Congress members tried to lure Janardhan Reddy into participating in the debate when they found him trying to make a statement.

Though the ruling JD (S) and BJP members were trying to prevent Reddy from speaking, several Congress members urged the Chairman to allow the BJP legislator to speak. The Chairman permitted Reddy to speak after the Congress members brought much pressure on him. But, the Chairman asked Reddy to restrict his statement to the on-going debate on privileges of legislative council members.

But, Reddy referred to challenge posed to him by Congress members, during the proceedings a day earlier to come clean on the Bellary bribery episode, and stunned the House by repeating the allegation that the Chief Minister was involved in the matter.

Even as the Chairman was heard asking Reddy not to raise the bribery issue, the BJP member, who was apparently angry, over the attempts to gag him, said “Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and Forest Minister C Chennigappa are involved in the collection of bribe amounting to Rs 1.5 billion from the mine owners of Bellary. There is no doubt about it”, he said.

Reddy’s reiteration of the charge against the Chief Minister comes within days after he retracted his statement at a media conference to temporarily put the lid on a controversy that proved to be a major embarrassment to the ruling JD (S)-BJP coalition.

Soon after Reddy repeated the charge, there was chaos in the House. Even as the Congress members were trying poke fun at the JD (S) and BJP members in the House for trying to gag Reddy, the Chairman adjourned the House.

But, Reddy addressed a crowded press conference in the corridors of Vidhana Soudha – the State Secretariat – and said the Chief Minister and his aides were blackmailing the mine owners in Bellary.

Reddy said that the Chief Minister, his family members, Forest Minister C Chennigappa and Home Minister M P Prakash had collected bribe from mine owners in Bellary district. “Now, they are blackmailing the mine owners, threatening to ban mining only to collect more bribe”, he said.

He said Home Minister M P Prakash’s son M P Ravi too was collecting money from a mining company. Reddy described the Home Minister as a “Tiger in the garb of cow”. The JD (S) was converting Karnataka into a Bihar, he alleged.