BJP Karnataka President targets Siddaramaiah for Shivakumar’s plight

Bengaluru: BJP Karnataka president Nalin Kumar Kateel may have successfully deflected attention away from chief minister BS Yediyurappa by alleging that senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah was behind former Congress minister DK Shivakumar’s arrest.
The ace troubleshooter for the Congress in Karnataka is currently under the custody of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Delhi where he is undergoing a probe for alleged money laundering. The court has remanded him to ED custody till September 13.

Yediyurappa had put the party in a tight spot last week by venting out his emotions on Shivakumar, and by saying he would like to see his early return from Delhi unscathed. “We are not rejoicing his arrest. I only pray that he will come out of this unscathed. If he comes out of this, I will be the happiest,” the CM was quoted as saying.

The CM’s remarks were at variance with his party position which spared no opportunity to attack the Congress leader.

“This conveyed an impression that we (BJP) have gone soft on Shivakumar,” a BJP leader said. And, the BJP state president was said to be aware of this.

He may have inadvertently corrected the course for his party vis-a-vis Shivakumar by dragging Siddaramaiah into the episode, and alluding to his role when trouble started for the Congress leader two years ago.

Kateel left Siddaramaiah seething with anger after he alleged in Bagalkot on Sunday that Siddaramaiah had been behind Shivakumar’s arrest because, as CM, did nothing to save his Cabinet colleague when the latter was being probed by the tax and the ED authorities.

The case of Shivakumar is a touchy one for the former CM because the party troubleshooter is known to enjoy a warm relationship with JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy, a known foe of Siddaramaiah.

And, any prolonged trouble for Shivakumar means Siddaramaiah facing no challenger in the party and to the position of opposition leader in the Assembly. Kateel may have exploited this sensitivity sparking instant protests from Siddaramaiah who hit back at the Lok Sabha member from Dakshina Kannada with three acidic tweets.

The former CM accused Kateel of trying to create differences among the leaders of a rival (Congress) party. “He has no minimal knowledge of who controls ED and income tax department,” Siddaramaiah said of the state BJP president, and said PM Narendra Modi could as well go home if he were controlling the tax and ED departments as inferred by Kateel.