StatesKarnataka
Priyank Kharge accuses a Union minister of pushing ED and IT action against him, Kumaraswamy hits back
Karnataka's Home Minister said the unnamed minister was using the KPSC recruitment probe as political cover. H D Kumaraswamy, at whom the remark was aimed, said he could fight the state government on his own.
Key points
- Priyank Kharge said a Union minister was pressing the Centre to weaponise the IT and ED against him and his colleagues.
- He accused the minister of using the KPSC recruitment probe as political cover.
- H D Kumaraswamy said the state's Home Minister was responsible for the whole affair.
Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge on Monday accused an unnamed Union minister of pressing the Modi government to turn the tax and enforcement agencies on him and his Cabinet colleagues, setting off a fresh round in the bitter feud between the state’s Congress government and the JD(S).
In a post on X, Kharge wrote that “a union minister is desperately pressuring Modi Sarkar to weaponise the IT and ED”, and was “using the KPSC investigation as political cover”. The probe he referred to concerns alleged irregularities in recruitment by the Karnataka Public Service Commission.
“It appears the extremely hard-working hon’ble minister is not prepared to go down alone,” Kharge wrote. “In his desperation, he seems determined to drag his own coalition partners down with him.”
Kumaraswamy answers
Kharge did not name the minister, but Congress sources said the remark was aimed at H D Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) leader and Union Heavy Industries Minister, whose party is the BJP’s ally. Kumaraswamy hit back when reporters asked him about it.
“It is not necessary for me to take protection from the Prime Minister or Home Minister (Union),” he told reporters. “I have the capacity to fight this state government.” Turning the charge around, he said: “The person responsible for all this is the state’s Home Minister.”
The exchange is the latest in a run of clashes between the two sides, which have traded charges for weeks over the sting operation targeting former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and, more recently, over Kumaraswamy’s claim that Honda was taking an electric vehicle project out of the state, which Industries Minister M B Patil called baseless.