Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar Defends CM Siddaramaiah Amid High Court Verdict

Bengaluru, Karnataka, India – Despite a negative ruling from the Karnataka High Court regarding the Governor’s approval to prosecute him, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has received strong support from his cabinet colleagues. Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar stated on Tuesday that there is no question of resignation, calling the situation a “political conspiracy” by the BJP.

Speaking to reporters, DK Shivakumar said, “There is no question (of resignation) by CM. He has not done anything wrong. He is not involved with any scam. This is a political conspiracy by the BJP to all of us, to all the opposition leaders of the country…so there is no question of why Chief Minister done anything wrong, they are creating problem. We stand by him, we support him. He has been doing a good work for the country, party and state.”

Shivakumar further denied any setback to the Chief Minister and reiterated that there is a “big conspiracy” against all Congress leaders. However, he emphasized that the party respects the legal system of the country. “I am telling you again, there is no setback to the CM. It is a big conspiracy on all our leaders, including me which we have faced earlier. Didn’t I come out clean? So, we will fight it out. We respect the legal system of this country. Injustice will not be flown from the seat of justice. We will get justice,” Shivakumar said.

Reacting to the judgement, Karnataka Congress asserted that the fight against “injustice” will continue. They also accused state Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot of “covering-up” complaints against Kumaraswamy and other BJP leaders. “The fight against Injustice will continue; 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,” the state unit of the Congress said on X.

The BJP, however, is demanding the immediate resignation of the Chief Minister. Karnataka BJP president BY Vijayendra said, “BJP has been relentlessly fighting against the corrupt Congress government. We have been fighting against the corrupt CM Siddaramaiah…When BJP took up the issue of MUDA scam…HC said that the petition challenged by the CM has been dismissed. The judge has observed that all are equal before the law. At this juncture I demand CM Siddaramiah ji to resign.”

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday dismissed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s petition challenging the approval given by Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot for conducting an investigation against him in the alleged illegalities in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) allotting sites to his wife. In his judgment, the single judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna said that the order of sanction for prosecution does not suffer from non-application of mind by the Governor. It is alleged that MUDA illegally allotted 14 sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife in the prime location of Mysuru city.

The High Court, in its interim order passed on August 19, had granted temporary relief to Siddaramaiah by directing a special court in Bengaluru to defer further proceedings and not to take any precipitative action pursuant to the sanction granted by the Governor. On August 31, the office of the Karnataka Governor told the high court in the state that the sanction granted to prosecute Karnataka Chief Minister K Siddaramaiah in the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam was done after “application of mind.”