Amid land allotment row involving Siddaramaiah, MUDA chief K Marigowda quits citing health reasons

Later while speaking to reporters, Marigowda said he was asked by Siddaramaiah to resign from the post. “I am not under any pressure. I am resigning due to health reasons. This is my personal decision. I have suffered a stroke twice and due to health concerns I put in my papers,” he said.

A close aide of Siddaramaiah, he was appointed as MUDA chairman after the Congress came to power in the state. His role in allegations against Siddaramaiah had come under scanner following the MUDA row, with several Congress leaders learnt to have demanded his resignation over the issue.

Sources said the alleged MUDA scam — which involves irregularities in the allocation of alternate sites to several individuals by cheating true beneficiaries— came to light after Marigowda wrote a letter to former MUDA commissioner G T Dinesh Kumar. The letter was attributed to a feud between Marigowda and another Congress leader from Mysuru over the allocation of sites.

Marigowda, who highlighted his four-decade-long association with Siddaramaiah after his resignation, had claimed innocence over the entire episode recently after his fallout with the CM became public.

While the alleged MUDA scam involves irregularities in the allocation of several hundred sites, the focus has remained on the alternate sites allotted to Siddaramaiah’s wife B Parvathi. She was granted the alternate sites in 2021 after MUDA acquired a three-acre-16-gunta land owned by her without carrying out the land acquisition process.