BJP accuses Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah’s family of accepting 14 pricey plots illegally alloted in Mysuru

The Opposition BJP demanded a reply from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on his wife accepting 14 expensive plots in an upscale locality in Mysuru in return for the Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) taking over 3 acre 16 guntas of her land in a village on the city outskirts.

Opposition leader R Ashoka, who led protests earlier in the day, accused the CM’s family of accepting pricey plots measuring 38,824 sq. ft in Mysuru, and sought to know from the CM if it was not an act of corruption. He also demanded an answer from the CM as to why his close friend, urban development minister Byrathi Suresh did not act on 15 letters written by the Mysuru deputy commissioner recommending cancellation of plots MUDA allotted to beneficiaries on a 50:50 ratio basis. He wondered how these plots came to be allotted without sanctions from the government.

The CM, in a post on X, said he did not accept the MUDA plots when he was in power. The previous BJP regime formulated the land compensation scheme on a 50:50 ratio basis and allotted the plot in a lawful manner. What is wrong with this?, he said.


In a chat with the media later, Siddaramiah denied a role in the MUDA site allotment scam while responding to BJP’s demands for his resignation. He said all the recent MUDA allotments have been kept on hold pending completion of the enquiry and rejected BJP’s demands for handing over investigation to the CBI.

Siddaramaiah said the BJP hardly transferred any case to the CBI when it ruled the state and was now calling its own scheme of awarding developed plots on a 50:50 ratio basis to landowners a scam.

Siddaramaiah’s wife had owned 3 acre 16 guntas of land at Kesare village near Ring Road in Mysuru. The land came to her as a gift from her brother, Mallikarjun. The MUDA, however, took over the land in 1997 and carved out residential plots.

On Monday, urban development minister Byrathi Suresh ordered the transfer of MUDA commissioner, secretary and other officials, pending a detailed investigation by a team of senior officials into all allotments of plots made on a 50:50 basis. He put on hold all the allotments while asking the investigators to submit their report in two weeks. The MUDA, the minister had said, will release the plots, the allotment of which is found to be in order by the probe committee.

Though the government had launched a scheme in 2020 to compensate landowners on a 50:50 allotment basis in exceptional cases, there had been no cabinet decision.