Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Karnataka Assembly, R. Ashoka, claimed on Friday that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ensured the defeat of Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar's brother D.K. Suresh in the recently-held Lok Sabha elections.
Mr Suresh, a three-time Congress MP from Bangalore Rural Lok Sabha constituency, went down to BJP's C.N. Manjunath by a margin of over 2.69 lakh votes in the recent polls.
After taking part in a protest staged in Kolar against the Congress government over the alleged tribal welfare board scam, Mr Ashoka said, "To get rid of Shivakumar's harassments, CM Siddaramaiah got Suresh defeated. However, in return, Shivakumar arranged for a statement from a prominent Vokkaliga seer demanding Siddaramaiah to vacate the CM's chair. Amid all this, Congress ministers are now demanding the creation of three more Deputy CM's posts. This government is going to collapse due to the curse of its legislators."
"The Vokkaliga seer has called for appointing Shivakumar as the Chief Minister. If the CM had any self-respect, he should have resigned by now," he added.
The senior BJP leader also alleged that Siddaramaiah is directly involved in the Rs 187 crore Valmiki tribal welfare board scandal, and demanded his immediate resignation from the CM's post.
"Former minister B. Nagendra, who resigned following the scam, swallowed 20 per cent of the money while Siddaramaiah usurped the remaining 80 per cent. Now the demand for CM's resignation will be made on the floor of the House. This agitation will continue until Siddaramaiah resigns," Mr Ashoka said.
The opposition leader also claimed that in the name of freebies, the Congress government has hiked the prices of milk in the state.
"Milk prices have been hiked, but the additional money is not going to the farmers. The prices of liquor consumed by the rich have decreased, but the liquor consumed by the common man has become costly," Mr Ashoka claimed.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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