Summary:
HUBBALLI: Despite BJP’s vociferous protest in the legislative assembly last week, former chief minister and Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah ensured Kumaraswamy-led coalition government stuck to his stand to handover the audiogate probe to Special Investigation Team (SIT).Some BJP leaders now strongly believe Siddaramaiah was aiming to kill two birds with one stone. “How could Siddaramaiah speak on behalf of the government in the session when he is not even a minister? Based on its report, they will decide on future course of action,” he told reporters in Vijayapura on Sunday.However, former chief minister Siddaramaiah insisted that the SIT will be given powers to investigate and act against the suspects. “We insisted on SIT because both Judicial and House committee probes would have been restricted to only fact finding and they would have no prosecution powers,” he added. “By insisting on SIT, Siddaramaiah plans to finish off chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and our leader B S Yeddyurappa ,” former deputy chief minister and BJP leader K S Eshwarappa told reporters here on Sunday.He said the investigation by SIT will do more harm to Kumaraswamy than Yeddyurappa since he was the one who orchestrated the audiogate by illegally tapping phone calls of opposition leaders.When the chief minister himself agreed to a suggestion from Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to reconsider his decision to hand over the probe to SIT, Eshwarappa alleged that it was Siddaramaiah who forced the government to order SIT probe..