Bengaluru: Dinesh Aminmattu, the Media Advisor to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Friday gave a new twist to the diary controversy. In a Face Book post on Friday, Mr Aminmattu recounted how BJP’s L.K. Advani had resigned in the mid-90s after his name figured in the Jain Hawala Diary.
Mr Aminmattu mentioned about the Birla-Sahara Diary and said PM Narendra Modi should set a precedent by resigning as PM. The punch line came at the end. “Thereafter, politicians whose names were mentioned in Govindaraju’s diary should throw resignation.”
When the content of this post was brought to the notice of Ra. Ramalinga Reddy whose name was mentioned in the diary, he admitted that he was called by the IT department after the purported diary was seized. "They asked me whether I had given money. I told the IT department that Mr Govindaraju and I belong to the same party. Except this, we do not have any other association let alone giving money to any one," he said. About Mr Aminmattu’s statement, Mr Ramalinga Reddy said, “Since Mr Mattu is an advisor to chief minister, he can give the same advice to Mr Siddaramaiah and if the latter asks us, we will have to follow it.” Meanwhile, when asked whether the CM concurred with Mr Aminmattu’s view, the CM’s office clarified that the Chief Minister did not share any matter with Mr Aminmattu.
Cases likely against BJP netas
A day after the release of purported diary of K Govindaraju, Congress MLC and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s parliamentary secretary, listing cash transfers to top party leaders, camp followers of the Kuruba strongman are contemplating a no-holds-barred offensive against BJP leaders, including a slew of cases against them. A section of Congress leaders, however, have cautioned against such a move but suggested an alternative of "tightening" cases involving BJP leaders. For, a slew of cases against BJP leaders at this juncture could help BJP leaders gain sympathy ahead of next year’s polls to the Legislative Assembly, they argued. Speaking to DC, a senior leader belonging to Mr Siddaramaiah’s camp felt the state government was moving at a slow pace with regard to cases involving BJP leaders like S. R. Vishwanath, C. T. Ravi and Lingayat strongman B. S. Yeddyurappa. "There are many cases pending against Mr Yeddyurappa but nothing moved till now. For instance, huge cash recovered from an advocate’s car at the entrance to Vidhana Soudha is one such case which is not heading anywhere. There are several such cases against BJP leaders, not only Mr Yeddyurappa alone, which needs to be expedited. This is what we are all thinking of as of now," the leader added.
