MUDA land scam: BJP demands Siddaramaiah's resignation, Congress says conspiracy

The Karnataka High Court dismissed his petition, challenging the legality of the Governor's decision to prosecute him over alleged irregularities in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scheme.

In Short

• BJP says Siddaramaiah should 'respectfully step down' as Chief Minister
• Court dismissed Siddaramaiah's petition against Governor
• Governor has sanctioned corruption probe against Siddaramaiah

The BJP called for Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's resignation after the Karnataka High Court dismissed his petition, challenging the legality of the Governor's decision to prosecute him over alleged irregularities in the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scheme.

The Karnataka unit of the BJP said in a post on X in Kannada, "The empire of lies built by you has completely collapsed, now respectfully resign from the post of Chief Minister."

A bench headed by Justice M Nagaprasanna dismissed Siddaramaiah's plea challenging the sanction granted by Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot to three people to file corruption cases against Siddaramaiah over the land that MUDA granted to his wife BM Parvathi.

Bangalore South MP Tejasvi Surya said in a post on X, "Karnataka High Court has dismissed the petition challenged by CM Sri @siddaramaiah over Governor's sanction for his prosecution in the MUDA scam. Ultimately, truth has a way of emerging, regardless of attempts to obscure it."

BJP leader Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi should hold a press conference about the land scams and corruptions in his party.

"He should also answer why several leaders of the Congress party loot the money and assets of the poor people, and when will they put a halt to this?" he added.

Meanwhile, Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar called it a "conspiracy" against Siddaramaiah.

He said, "This is a conspiracy. Siddaramaiah will come out clean. He has not done anything wrong and he will not resign."

The deputy chief minister further said that the BJP was not able to "bear" the Chief Minister's work.

The Karnataka unit of the Congress said that the "fight against injustice" would continue and "there is no question of yielding to the Governor's attempts to destabilize the government or the BJP's conspiracy".

"It is well known that the Governor has tried to cover up complaints against Kumaraswamy and other BJP leaders. The Governor's questioning of how these complaints were leaked only provides further evidence of his biased politics," it said in a post on X.

The sanction was granted after complaints were filed by three activists, TJ Abraham, Snehamai Krishna and Pradeep Kumar SP, over corruption allegations against Siddaramaiah in the MUDA case.

The case pertains to allegations that compensatory sites were allotted to BM Parvathi in an upmarket area in Mysuru that had higher property value as compared to the location of her land that had been "acquired" by MUDA.

MUDA had allotted plots to Parvathi under a 50:50 ratio scheme in lieu of 3.16 acres of her land, where MUDA developed a residential layout. However, activists alleged that the plot allotted to Parvathi had a higher property value as compared to the location of her land that was acquired by MUDA.