The Karnataka Council of Ministers on Thursday decided to “strongly advise the honourable Governor to withdraw the (show-cause) notice” and reject the application filed by activist T J Abraham against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in connection with the alleged scam in Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA). The decision came after a four-hour meeting of the Council. Deputy CM D K Shivakumar told reporters the show-cause notice was “political” with mala fide intentions. “We are confident that the Governor will be sensible as we have sent a detailed reply,” he said, adding that the notice was in violation of several judgments. CM Siddaramaiah recused himself from the meeting held to discuss the notice issued against him and authorised the deputy CM to chair the meet. Shivakumar said the government was “confident that (the) Governor would definitely withdraw the notice”. The Governor issued the notice on July 26 after an activist filed a complaint seeking sanction for prosecution. This despite the government responding to the complaint and submitting a report through the Chief Secretary on the same day. According to the government, this showed that the Governor acted in “undue haste”. “A reading of the show cause notice, more so the finding by the Governor that ‘on perusal of the request, it is seen that the allegations against you are of serious nature and prima facie plausible’ leads to an undeniable conclusion that there is pre-judging of the issue, disregarding the report of the Chief Secretary dated 26/07/2023,” the decision by the Council of Ministers reads. “The entire sequence of events and the admitted facts and circumstances based on available records lead to an unequivocal conclusion that there is gross misuse of the Constitutional Office of the Governor and a concerted effort is being (made) to destabilise a lawfully elected majority government in Karnataka for political considerations.” Siddaramaiah is under fire from the BJP, which has accused his wife Parvati of “illegally” benefitting from MUDA after the agency encroached on a parcel of land owned by her to create layouts. The BJP has alleged that there was an irregularity in the purchase of land by her brother and also in the compensatory sites allotted by MUDA in exchange for the land.
