FIR against K'taka CM Siddaramaiah a politics of vengeance: Congress slams BJP

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Accusing the BJP-led Central government of making attempts to destabilise Siddaramaiah-led Karnataka government, the grand old party on Tuesday termed the FIR filed against the Karnataka Chief Minister a "politics of vengeance".

Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh, and party spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi, during a press conference here at the party office, slammed the BJP over this issue.

"For the last two days, politics of vengeance, harassment and intimidation is being witnessed in Karnataka. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not yet been able to tolerate the BJP's crushing defeat in Karnataka (referring to last year's Assembly polls). The FIR against Siddaramaiah is not just an attack on him but on the people of Karnataka," Ramesh said.

He added that this was happening because the people of Karnataka did not give a majority to BJP in the 2023 Assembly polls.

"Right from the day the Congress came to power in Karnataka, the BJP government has been trying to destabilise the Karnataka government. The BJP is doing politics of vengeance but the Congress is not afraid," the senior Congress leader said.

Meanwhile, Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the BJP was trying to intimidate Siddaramaiah through the PMLA.

"The BJP is trying to break the people. The only objective of the BJP government is to threaten and intimidate the opposition. Bringing the ED genie out of the bottle is not a coincidence. The BJP's aim is to intimidate the Congress government and Siddaramaiah. Of the total political cases of ED, 95 per cent of the cases are against the opposition only. The cases of all those who defected and broke the government in Maharashtra are in cold storage,"Singhvi said.

He said that ED is actually the "election department" of the BJP.

Terming the case registered against Siddaramaiah as baseless, Singhvi said that his wife -- in connection with the MUDA land scam matter -- had received plots in lieu of land in 2022, when he was an opposition MLA and the BJP was in power in Karnataka.

"There is no case of money laundering in this case," he added.

--IANS

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