'Time for Bommai to follow Raj Dharma or quit': Congress on contractor's suicide

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddarmaiah, along with his Congress colleague Randeep Surjewala, on Tuesday visited the house of the contractor who died by suicide last week. The death of the contractor - Pradeep S - has triggered a major political row in the state, which goes to vote in the assembly elections later this year. The Congress leaders met the bereaved family, and targeted the ruling BJP amid allegations of corruption.

In a tweet, Randeep Surjewala posted a clip along with the family of the contractor, as he tweeted: "The unbearable pain, the uncontrollable tears & insufferable agony of Chavi, Namita, the aged father & the tearful mother can’t be told in words or the sea of pain felt by all of us. (sic)"

In the past, the grand old party has hit out at the BJP, accusing it of taking "40 per cent commission" for delegating the work to contractors - a claim that the ruling party has dismissed. With the death of Pradeep S, the party leaders have renewed the attacks yet again. "How many more Pradeeps have to die at the altar of BJP leaders’s dubious financial deals? (sic)" Surjewala asked on Tuesday on Twitter.

Allegations have also surfaced against BJP Aravind Limbavali. "How many more Santosh Patil & T.N.Prasads’ must be sacrificed to satisfy the lust of BJP’s #40PercentSarkara? Why hasn’t Arvind Limbavali & others not been arrested by Bommai Govt? (sic)" Surjewala further posted on Twitter along with his address after meeting the bereaved family. In his suicide note, the contractor had named Limbavali, and this has to calls for his resignation by the opposition parties.

Surjewala on Tuesday went on to call for Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai's resignation. "The insatiable lust for ill-gotten money. The suffocating stench of corruption, The brazen loot of BJP’s corrupt government.. has blinded the BJP leadership and CM Bommai to the broad daylight murder of people and rule of law. Time for Mr. Bommai to follow Raj Dharma or quit! (sic)"

On Monday, speaking to reporters, Bommai had said: “It is some civil dispute, police have seized off the matter, and FIR has been filed. Police will take further action. He (Aravind Limbavali) has made it clear that I've nothing to do & I wish that he'll come clean."

Last year in April, BJP MLA KS Eshwarappa had to resign from the state cabinet after a huge controversy over the suicide of a contractor. He was later cleared by police in the case.

(With inputs from ANI)