BJP demands 'whitepaper' into state's financial position

BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa also hit out at the Congress-JD(S) coalition terming it as an "unholy alliance" for the sake of power, and said there was confusion among people about who the Chief Minister is.

"I want to tell the Chief Minister that before presenting the budget, present a whitepaper on the financial situation of the state," Yeddyurappa said.

He was speaking on the motion of thanks to the Governor for his address in the assembly.

Yeddyurappa said the state had loans worth about Rs 2.38 lakh crore.

"What steps have been to take to pay back this. There are also pending bills of about Rs 10,000 crore in PWD and Irrigation."

He alleged that with an illusion of coming back to power, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during the end of his government's tenure went on a foundation laying spree, which is worth about thousands of crores of rupees.

Alleging that dues were pending for several of the flagship programmes of the previous government, Yeddyurappa said he and his party would wait until the budget to see whether the Chief Minister would fulfil his pre-budget promise of farm loan waiver worth about Rs 53,000 crore.

"If the promises made are not fulfilled, BJP and all its 104 MLAs will go to the people with Congress and JD(S) manifesto to inform them that the parties have not walked the talk," he said.

He said the people of the state had rejected the Congress in the assembly polls by bringing down its strength from 121 to 78 now and that of JD(S) from 40 to 37 in the 224-member assembly.

"Despite the popular mandate against them, a leader of the party with 37 MLAs in 224-member assembly has become CM.

This is our misery. It is the murder of our democratic system with hunger for power," he said.

Accusing the Congress and JD(S) of forming an "unholy alliance", just to keep BJP out of power, he termed it as an "insult" to BR Ambedkar.

Declaring that BJP would work as a formidable opposition, he termed the governor's address as "direction less."

Also targeting the ruling coalition over differences within, regarding delay in cabinet expansion with fear of dissidence, he said they have still not been able to take control of the administration.

Yeddyurappa flayed Kumaraswamy's comments that he was not at the mercy of people, but of Congress party, as an "insult" to the people of the state.

"He (CM) has called himself a child of circumstances... Anything that is born in an atmosphere of selfishness, hatred, jealousy will not have natural life time. His comments show he is guilty conscious," he added.

Suggesting that the coalition lacks public trust and it was bound to "collapse", Yeddurappa listed differences among partner parties including on presentation of a fresh budget.

He said there was confusion among people "who is Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah or Kumaraswamy?"

"While one remote control of the government is in Delhi (Congress high command), the other was in Padmanabhanagar (Deve Gowda residence in Bengaluru)," he said.

The House also witnessed some heated exchanges when Yeddyurappa said the Chief Minister had promised to waive private loans ahead of polls.

Kumaraswamy rejected the charges and sought proof.

As it led to allegations and counter allegations about some decisions made during 2006 BJP-JD(S) coalition government, Speaker Ramesh Kumar intervened to end the issue.