Reports of Cong MLA giving luxury car to Siddaramaiah surface

bengaluru — Amid political turbulence in Karnataka, Congress MLA Byrathi Suresh has courted a fresh controversy after media reports of former chief minister Siddaramaiah receiving a luxury car from him surfaced.

Denying the reports, Congress leader and minister D K Shivakumar said Siddaramaiah has not been gifted Mercedes-Benz car by Suresh, but it had been given for his travelling purposes.

“There is no gift or anything. We sometimes take our friends’ vehicle to travel. There is no issue. Is there any record that he has received a gift or anything? Nothing, no record,” he said.

In June last year, Siddaramaiah was in the eye of a controversy after the then minister K J George allegedly gifted him a Toyota Land Cruiser with fuel coupons for a year.

George, then, had deflected the charges by saying that he had lent the vehicle as Siddaramaiah was uncomfortable travelling long distances in an Innova.

Earlier in February 2016, Siddaramaiah had been mired in controversy over a Rs7 million worth diamond-studded Hublot watch gifted to him.

He later handed over the watch to then Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa amid uproar in the assembly, declaring it a state asset. Both the opposition BJP and JD(S) members had staged a dharna in the well of the House. —