Suresh unfazed by PM, doubles down on tax remark

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Congress MP from Bengaluru Rural and candidate for the constituency in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections DK Suresh took aim at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP allies JD(S).

Suresh referred to the PM mentioning his comment from months ago that if Karnataka didn’t get its fair share in tax devolution, secessionist sentiments may crop up in the state.

The MP doubled down on his statement, insisting that the southern state should get much more income than what is being devolved to it. He made the comments in Harohalli town in Ramanagara district on Tuesday.

He also derided the JD(S) for agreeing to field party patriarch HD Deve Gowda’s son-in-law Dr Manjunath from Bengaluru Rural on a BJP ticket, besides party state president HD Kumaraswamy for leaving his Channapatna Assembly constituency in Ramanagara district and contesting from the Mandya Lok Sabha segment.

“He (Modi) should talk about the injustice that is being done to Kannadigas. The tax money of Kannadigas is being siphoned away to north India. Our money is being used for the development of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh. In the past 10 years, not a single special grant has been received by Karnataka. They should present before us what they did for the development of Bengaluru,” Suresh said.

“Kannadigas contributed Rs 24 lakh crore in taxes in the past 10 years. The Central government has returned only Rs 2.92 lakh crore To which states did the rest of the Rs 21 lakh crore go? Why wasn’t permission given for our irrigation projects? What jobs have they created here?” he asked.

The MP added that it was unfair to label him a traitor when Modi himself had argued for better tax devolution to Gujarat when he was the state’s chief minister.