Vishwanath’s bombshell again!

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT 

Former minister and BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath, dubbed as the ‘conscience-keeper’ of the ruling party that he joined only a few years ago, has claimed that leaders of all three major parties teamed up to defeat him in the Hunsur Assembly bypoll held in 2019.

“ F o r m e r C M s H.D.Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah, BJP Vice-President B.Y.Vijayendra and BJP MLC C.P.Yogeshwar worked as a team to defeat me out of vengeance. I would even say that the Yediyurappa government was run by three parties- Congress, JD(S) and BJP and I paid the price for it”, Vishwanath told News Trail. In an exclusive interview, he alleged that Yediyurappa received kickbacks worth crores of rupees by clearing irrigation projects, and further alleged that this was the reason that the BJP top brass enforced a change at the top. Mr Yediyurappa has strongly contested similar charges made by other critics in the past.

Known as a bitter critic of the BJP government, BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath has claimed that leaders of all three major parties in the state teamed up to defeat him in the by-polls held to Hunsur Assembly constituency in 2019.

“Former CM, H.D.Kumaraswamy, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah, State BJP Vice-President B.Y. Vijayendra and BJP MLC C.P. Yogeshwar worked as a team to defeat me out of vengeance. That is the reason that made me say that the Yediyurappa government was run by three parties, Congress, JD(S) and BJP. I paid the price for it. We fought to make Yediyurappa CM but ultimately I became a scapegoat”, Vishwanath told News Trail.

“Yediyurappa had promised me that I will be nominated to the State Legislative Council from the  Assembly but he was misled by former CM Kumaraswamy and Vijayendra who ensured that I was nominated to the Council so that I would not become minister. My name was in the list of persons to be nominated from the Assembly to the Council but it was struck down to accommodate Yogeshwar. It was done by Vijayendra after listening to Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy against whom I had spoken outy”, the BJP MLC said.

Vishwanath said the three former CMs, Yediyurappa, Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah were involved in verbal attacks against each other only as a ‘show-off’ when they were functioning as a team. Even the Yediyurappa government was run by them and the same team almost transferred large tracts of land to the Jindal company during the tenure of Yediyurappa but he (Vishwanath) intervened and posted all documents to the union government led by Prime Minister Modi. Based on his documents, the PM intervened and issued an instruction to then CM Yediyurappa not to approve the deal in the state Cabinet, Vishwanath asserted.

He alleged that Yediyurappa received kickbacks worth crores of rupees by clearing irrigation projects  worth Rs. 18,000 crore to Rs. 20,000 crore flouting all rules and regulations. The man behind all these scams was none other than Vijayendra. 

All the documents were still with him to prove how Vijayendra meddled in ministries that made the ministers  angry. Yediyurappa was removed not because of the age factor but because of corruption with Vijayendra allegedly acting as an agent to strike deals. “I took to task BJP General Secretary and In-Charge of Karnataka, Arun Singh a few months ago and openly called him a ‘suitcase carrier,’’ Vishwanath added