Siddaramaiah will resign as CM, claims Vijayendra

State BJP president predicts Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's resignation amid MUDA 'scam' allegations, hinting at political turmoil in Karnataka.

State BJP president B.Y. Vijayendra claimed that he had information about Chief Minister Siddaramaiah resigning from his post after Dasara.

Mr. Vijayendra, who was in Mysuru on Sunday in connection with the party’s membership drive, told reporters that the countdown for Mr. Siddaramaiah to quit as Chief Minister had begun soon after the BJP’s padayatra to Mysuru to highlight the corruption by the Congress government in the State with Mr. Siddaramaiah himself facing charges of irregularities in the allotment of sites by Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA).

He said his prediction on Mr. Siddaramaiah’s resignation was not merely a politically-motivated statement. “He can resign any moment. Such a situation has arisen. The Congress High Command is also discussing the matter,” he said while adding that Mr. Siddaramaiah too was aware that the Congress High Command has seized of the matter.

To a question from reporters, Mr. Vijayendra said it was not just Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who was eyeing the Chief Minister’s chair, but about seven to eight other aspirants in the party were also waiting to occupy the coveted post.

He said the MUDA ‘scam’ was not merely about the 14 sites allotted to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife. “Thousands of crores of rupees have been looted. We will expose it in the coming days,” he said.

When the BJP sought a discussion on the MUDA ‘scam’ in the Legislature, the ruling party refused to allow a debate on the matter, claiming no such scam had taken place. Yet, the government appointed the one-man commission of inquiry to probe the alleged irregularities in the MUDA, he said.

Later, Mr. Siddaramaiah realised that the MUDA scam posed a threat to his continuation as the Chief Minister and hence he decided to have the sites surrendered.