Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah reiterated that the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) had legally allotted 14 residential sites to his wife, Parvathi, in lieu of illegally acquired her land. The authority had accepted its ‘mistake’, and a MUDA committee comprising members of BJP, JD(S) and Congress had allotted alternative sites in 2021 during the tenure of the BJP government.

The allotment of land does not attract provisions of the Karnataka Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prohibition of Transfer of Certain Lands) Act, known as the PTCL Act, as claimed by the opposition BJP and JD(S) leaders, he said.

He claimed that the opposition BJP and JD(S) had raised the issue inside and outside the State legislature as ‘political revenge’ to sully his image and that of the Congress government in Karnataka. “The opposition was jealous that he had become the Chief Minister for the second time, and that he had no black spot in his four-decade political life,” Mr. Siddaramaiah claimed, during a two-hour-long press conference in the State Secretariat, armed with documents related to the property.

This comes a day after the opposition BJP andJD (S) submitted a petition to Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot seeking that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah be directed to resign over alleged irregularities in the MUDA.

Mr. Siddaramaiah defended the allotment of 14 sites of different sizes to his wife. He explained that the MUDA had allotted 38,284 sqft of land in Vijayanagar Layout in Mysuru for illegally acquiring 1.48 lakh sqft (three acres and 16 guntas) in Survey No. 464, at Kesare village in Mysuru taluk. The Chief Minister said the MUDA had similarly allotted 1,328 alternative sites in the third and fourth stages of Vijayanagara Layout in Mysuru to others as well.

The Chief Minister said, “We had not sought sites in any specific locality or layout. The MUDA board passed a resolution on allotment of alternative sites. We had sought sites as per the law, and MUDA has allotted the sites as per the rules.”

“The opposition BJP and JD(S) leaders are politically frustrated after their defeat in the 2023 Assembly elections,” he claimed. Additionally, the BJP-JD(S) combine suffered a setback in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections by winning 19 seats, down from 26 seats held by the combine in the previous Lok Sabha. The Congress secured 13% more votes in 2024 compared to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, he said.

“My political life is an open book. Every page is transparent and honest,” the Chief Minister said.

Brandishing documents related to the property since 1935, he said Ning Bin Jawara secured the land in a public auction by paying ₹1. The sale was confirmed on October 13, 1935. Later, the property was registered in the name of Devaraju, one of the three sons of Ning Bin Jawara.

In 2004, Mallikarjuna Swamy, brother-in-law of Siddaramaiah, bought the land from Devaraju. In 2005, Mallikarjuna Swamy submitted an application to the Deputy Commissioner of Mysuru for change of land use. Mallikarjuna Swamy gifted the land to Parvathi, wife of the CM, in 2010.

The Chief Minister said the MUDA issued the final notification for acquiring the land in 1997. But a three-member committee headed by retired IAS officer V. Balasubramanian denotified the land, along with another 18 land denotifications, in 1998 based on the recommendation of the MUDA.

Mr. Balasubramanian retired as an additional chief secretary, after over 35 years of service in the government in Karnataka and at the Centre.

The CM claimed that the MUDA illegally acquired his wife’s property and distributed sites, developing a park and roads. “She made an application before the MUDA seeking alternative land,” the chief minister said.

During the tenure of the BJP government, 14 alternative sites were allotted to his wife Parvathi on October 25, 2021. The sites were sanctioned by a MUDA Committee comprising BJP member A. Ramdas, JD(S) MLA G.T. Deve Gowda, and ex-JD(S) MLC and now Congress leader Marithibbe Gowda. “Accepting its mistake, the MUDA allotted alternative sites,“ he said. Similarly, it allotted 1,328 sites to various persons, the CM claimed.

To unravel the truth, the State government has constituted a one-man judicial commission, headed by a former judge of the High Court of Karnataka P. N. Desai, to look into the allocation of sites by the MUDA during 2006-2024, he said. 

Lawyer-turned-Congress MLA A.S. Ponnanna and Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh supported the Chief Minister by providing property documents since 1935 to justify the legality of allotment of 14 sites to his wife.