New Delhi: Faced by an unrelenting Opposition campaign against corruption, Congress On Monday sought to make a major issue out of the stand off between Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde and B S Yeddyurappa over probe into land scam cases, asking the Chief Minister to quit.
The party also levelled fresh allegations of corruption against the BJP government in Chhattishgarh, saying a company owned in proxy by the BJP's central leadership was given iron ore mining leases immediately after it was formed.
"An aggrieved Lokayukta yesterday said that perhaps it was not the right decision for him to take back his resignation (after persuasion by senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani). In the wake of the Lokayutka's recent observations, Yeddyurappa should immediately step down," party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters at the AICC briefing.
The Lokayukta's apprehension that the state goverment had constituted a judicial probe into land allotments in a bid to take the issue out of the purview of Lokayukta turned out to be true, he said.
Hegde has on Monday expressed displeasure over various cases including land scams, now under the Lokayukta scanner being "transferred to judicial probe without, let alone approval, even a discussion."
The Congress spokesperson alleged that a sum of Rs 2.5 crore was deposited in the name of a building construction company owned by Yeddyurappa's kin by a person, who was allotted iron ore mining leases in 2008, adding that "it's a direct issue of corruption."
Tewari alleged that a company named Pushpa, which was allotted iron ore mines in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh days after it was formed in Delhi is "a proxy of BJP's bigwigs."
He said some central leaders of BJP are "surrogate" behind Pushpa and dared Chief Minister Raman Singh to reveal the owners of the company.
"Raman Singh should tell who is the real owner of Pushpa company. If he does not tell. If the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister does not reveal the name, we will expose it," Tewari said.
The Congress spokesperson also asked BJP to clear its position on Arun Shourie's remark that his name was dropped and Venkaiah Naidu was named to participate in the debate in Parliament over 2G Spectrum issue as the party feared that he would raise the issue of rift between Ambani brothers.
Terming it a case of "debate fixing" and taking a jibe at the main Opposition party, he said, "Debate fixing is BJP's contribution to the national discourse."
The Congress spokesperson, at the same time, maintained, "The government can justify its action if it takes any decision. It did not need the crutches of BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu for this."
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