Yeddyurappa’s Rs. 1-Crore SUV revs up row, after CM’s 70 lakhs watch

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, Apr 16, 2016: After Karnataka chief minister K Siddaramaiah’s Rs. 70-lakh watch, BJP state chief BS Yeddyurappa’s new ride is creating a buzz. It is a Land Cruiser, which costs about Rs. 1 crore.

BJP spokesperson in Karnataka S Prakash said the white luxury car has been "loaned" to Mr Yeddyurappa by a sugar baron and politician Murugesh Nirani to tour the state.

Team Yeddyurappa says it is not a new car. It also says that the new state chief needs a comfortable vehicle to travel thousands of kilometres across the state as he consolidates the party, which lost power to the Congress in the last assembly elections.

 

Not long ago, when the BJP had made much noise about the Hublot watch Chief Minister Siddaramaiah of the Congress was sporting on his wrist, the latter had to explain that it was gift from a friend and also second-hand. Mr Siddaramaiah had also said that he was handing it over to the state.

Mr Yeddyurappa has said he has been tasked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah to wrest the state back from the Congress in the 2018 assembly elections. He has set the Karnataka BJP a target of winning 150 of the states 225 assembly seats in that election.

He was the BJP’s first and as yet only chief minister in South India when Mr Yeddyurappa was forced by the party leadership to step down as corruption charges swirled around him. Sulking, he had quit the BJP months before the last assembly elections and launched his own political party that played spoiler for the BJP.

Mr Yeddyurappa was back in the party just before the 2014 general elections. Most of the cases against him have been quashed by courts.