From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, July 20: Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader R Ashoka on Saturday said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s “assiduously cultivated clean image over 40 years” has been exposed in the multi-crore scam of Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, which has rattled the latter to such an extent that he speaks on extraneous issues except the Valmiki scam.

Addressing a news conference at the State BJP office on Saturday, he accused the chief minister of trying to hush up the Valmiki scam and he has now blamed the officials for the embezzlement of crores of funds.

“If the officials (of Valmiki Corporation) are to be blamed and held guilty for the embezzlement, what was the chief minister doing? Was the chief minister rearing donkeys? If the officials of the Corporation were involved in similar incidents in the past, why were they retained in the same post,” he asked.

The BJP leader said the Congress government was ‘solely responsible” for the entire scam and asserted that Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was in “no way involved” even though the nationalised Union Bank of India, comes under the Union Finance Ministry.

Ashoka claimed that the Union Bank of India officials had entrusted the investigation to CBI by writing a letter as its officials were involved in the fraudulent transactions. However, the government sought to bypass the CBI by constituting its own SIT to hush up the scandal, he said.

He attacked the chief minister of issuing elaborate advertisements to clarify the position and claimed that he had furnished over 40 documents. The chief minister is silent on the documents and is trying to divert attention, he said.

The senior BJP leader asked the chief minister as to why the Scheduled Tribes Welfare Minister B Nagendra was asked to resign if he had no role to play in the scam and alleged that Nagendra along with Basvanagouda Daddal had mobilised funds from the Valmiki Corporation and sent to Telangana for funding the Congress party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign.

Ashoka ridiculed the chief minister’s claims that previous B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP governments had indulged in corruption and looted funds and asked why the government has not done anything in the last one year. 

“The probe in the charge of 40% commission is still incomplete,” he said and made it clear that BJP is not afraid to face the probes.

Ashoka claimed that the BJP is fighting to ensure that the funds of SC/STs and dalits is returned and the chief minister should resign.

The BJP leader countered the chief minister’s 21 charges against the BJP government and challenged him to resign to make way for a BJP government. “We will investigate ourselves,” he declared.

Ashoka challenged Deputy Chief Minister and Bengaluru Development Minister D K Shivakumar to ensure that grants were released to all assembly constituencies in the city for the development of ‘Brand Bengaluru’ as BJP had the largest number of MLAs in Bengaluru.