Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, a BJP leader, claimed on Friday that a few Delhi power brokers had urged him to pay a bribe of Rs 2,500 crore to become chief minister. The revelations were made by the BJP MLA while speaking at a Panchamasali community rally in Ramdurg, Belagavi district.
“A few people from Delhi, who said that they were close to Congress president and BJP president asked me to pay Rs 2,500 crore to become chief minister. They said they would take me to meet JP Nadda. But, I refused. I told them that I had no idea how much money Rs 2,500 crore would be? Where does anyone keep such big amounts of money?” he said.
DK Shivakumar, the head of the KPCC, was quick to respond to Yatnal’s comments, saying that the allegations must be taken seriously.He responded by saying, “Yatnal has said that to become a chief minister he was asked to pay Rs 2,500 crore and to become a minister Rs 100 crore. Yatnal was a former union minister and his statement can’t be taken casually. This should be debated nationally.”
The BJP MLA further said that “adjustment politics” exists amongst prominent Karnataka politicians from several parties, including BJP’s B S Yediyurappa, Congress’s Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar, and JD’s H D Kumaraswamy (S). They favour each other, according to the Vijayapura City MLA, regardless of who is in power.
“Some of these people from different parties have adjustment, a tall leader of BJP (Yediyurappa), D K Shivakumar, Kumaraswamy all these people have adjustment. I have said in the assembly too that all you leaders sitting in the front seats have adjustment. All of you Yediyurappa, Siddaramaiah, D K Shivakumar, Kumaraswamy speak at night,” Yatnal said.
“I have told them to shut their drama company. After Shikaripura, (Yediyurappa’s constituency) highest development grants have gone to Badami (represented by Siddaramaiah), then it was given to Shivakumar, when Yediyurappa was CM. We, BJP MLAs are not elected to just raise our hands….after raising the issue, Bommai as CM gave Rs 500 crore to my constituency,” he added.
In answer to a query, Yatnal stated that Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had to quit as a Minister following a sex CD scandal, should be reinstated because he helped the BJP obtain power in the state. “There was a conspiracy to fix him (Jarkiholi), the son of one of our (BJP) tall leaders was also involved in the conspiracy along with Congress leaders like D K Shivakumar,” he alleged.
The former Union Minister further stated that, similar to the BJP’s one man, one post policy, a day will come when one family, one ticket will be implemented, allowing party workers to run for office.
