Siddaramaiah Denies BJP's Allegations of Fund Misappropriation, Accuses BJP of Misleading People

Bengaluru: Former chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, on Saturday rebuffed the accusations of the BJP that funds were misappropriated during his tenure. Citing the CAG report 2016-17, the BJP has been targeting Siddaramaiah for causing loss to the exchequer due to “avoidable expenditures”.

The Opposition is now questioning the Kumaraswamy led- coalition for its inaction against the alliance partner Congress.

Siddaramaiah on Saturday produced copies of non-reconciled receipts before the media which suggest that for the period 2016-17 an amount of Rs 30,036 or 19% of the total expenditure is yet to be reconciled. The former chief minister also pointed out that huge decline in the number of cases of theft and misappropriation, which were at 183 during 2008-09 and had come down to 25 in 2016-17.

"BJP is deliberately making false statements about the CAG report. Yeddyurappa has become desperate as he wants to become CM again but he is ageing, so they are trying to mislead the people," Siddaramaiah said.

He took to Twitter and trained the guns at the central government.

BJP MLA CT Ravi responded to Siddaramaiah's tweet saying that if he has nothing to hide he shouldn't shy away from an investigation.

Many are questioning the timing of the BJP for bringing out the discrepancies. "The CAG report was in public domain for so long. The BJP wants to create a stir before the Belagavi session and not allow a smooth functioning of the assembly", a source from the congress said.