Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah rejects poll funding claims after I-T raids unearth Rs 82 cr
Siddaramaiah on Monday said the Congress high command has not sought any funds from the party regime in Karnataka to meet the party’s campaign expenses in the five states that are facing polls in November.
His comments followed the attacks from the Opposition BJP and JDS linking the estimated Rs 82 crore cash recovered by the income tax authorities from a series of raids on two contractors in Bengaluru. While one of them is an office bearer of the state contractor association, the other is a spouse of a former corporator.
Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana are headed to assembly elections in November, and the Opposition parties have accused the ruling Congress of turning the southern state into an ATM to fund the party’s campaign expenses in these states.
But the chief minister strongly denied the allegations.
“The party high command has neither asked any money from us, nor expected us to give to states. These are all totally false allegations,” Siddaramaih told the media in Mysuru.
The BJP, in a post on social media site X accused the Congress of being caught even before transporting the funds mobilized through commission, extortion.”
The CM dismissed allegations by the BJP that the Congress has fixed a target of Rs 1000 crore for Siddaramaiah and Rs 2000 crore for his deputy DK Shivakumar to mop up resources to fight elections in the five state assemblies.
The party unit in states that are going to polls would manage their campaign expenses on their own, just like the party did it in Karnataka. “We never asked for money from others.
