Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday that BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal was targeting him for sharing dais with Maulvi Tanveer Hashmi at a conference in Hubballi on December 4 out of anger and frustration for not being made BJP president or the Leader of the Opposition.
Commenting over the Chief Minister inaugurating ‘Aluad-E-Gouse-E-Azam’ conference on the outskirts of Hubballi on Monday, Mr. Yatnal had alleged that Mr. Hashmi was an “ISIS supporter and terrorist sympathiser.”
The Chief Minister wrote on X that Mr. Yatnal appears to have made these allegations with the actual intent of “taking revenge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah.”
Putting up some pictures of Mr. Hashmi with BJP leaders, he further said: “Despite Mr. Yatnal using a photo of me with Mr. Hashmi to levy accusations against me, it is slowly becoming evident that his real target is Prime Minister @narendramodi. It is suggested by photographs shared in the media that not only other BJP leaders but Mr. Modi too may have connections with Mr. Hashmi. It looks unlikely that Mr. Yatnal, who has been a close associate of Mr. Hashmi for a long time and a neighbour in the locality, was unaware of this.”
Referring to the earlier comments of Mr. Yatnal over former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and other BJP leaders, Mr. Siddaramaiah wrote: “…What power lies behind Mr. Yatnal’s ability to openly make accusations against senior leaders of his own party?”
He further said: “According to newspaper reports, it has been revealed that Mr. Yatnal has business ties with the family of Mr. Hashmi. If, as Mr. Yatnal alleges, Mr. Hashmi has connections with ISIS, then didn’t Mr. Yatnal, being a business partner with Mr. Hashmi, know about it?”
