BJP alleges ‘scam’ in allocation of land to Kharge family trust in K’taka, demands Congress chief’s resignation

New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday alleged a “scam” in allocation of a piece of land to a trust run by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s family in Karnataka and demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters here, party national spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia demanded Mallikarjun Kharge’s resignation as the Congress president and that of his son Priyank Kharge, who is a minister in the Karnataka government.

He also demanded Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s resignation.

“There is a consistency in the Congress’ acts of corruption. Wherever we will go we will do corruption is the new slogan of the Congress. It will not be wrong to say that the Congress has become synonymous with corruption,” Bhatia said.

“We saw the MUDA scam and Valmiki Development Corporation scam happening under the nose of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. Now a case of allocation of five-acre land to a trust run by Mallikarjun Kharge and his family in Karnataka has emerged,” he added.

The land has been allocated to the Kharge family-run trust by flouting of rules, the BJP spokesperson said, claiming that Mallikarjun Kharge, his wife, his son-in-law Radhakrishna and sons – Priyank Kharge and Rahul Kharge – are in the trust.

“As per information with us, several companies and organisations had given application for the land but it was allocated to the Kharge family-run trust by flouting the rules,” Bhatia claimed.

The BJP spokesperson demanded that Mallikarjun Kharge immediately resign as the Congress president and his son Priyank Kharge as the state minister.

“There should be an impartial probe into it by an independent agency CBI to ascertain the truth,” he said.

BJP leader Lahar Singh Siroya, also a Rajya Sabha member, had on Sunday questioned the alleged allocation of Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIADB) land to a trust run by Kharge’s family and asked when did they become aerospace entrepreneurs to be eligible for the land.

He had also sought to know whether the case was about misuse of power, nepotism and conflict of interest.

Karnataka Large and Medium Industries Minister M B Patil said on Monday that the educational trust run by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Rahul Kharge was allotted a Civic Amenity (CA) plot at Aerospace park at a prescribed price in accordance with the norms.

In a statement, Patil dismissed the allegations made by Siroya and insisted that no rules were violated in the process.