Bengaluru: Minister for Bengaluru Development K J George, on March 2, described Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) chargesheet as a bundle of lies which doesn’t even deserve to be dumped in a trash bin.

“The trash bin has some value but the BJP’s chargesheet has no value at all’’, Minister George told reporters at Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office here.

The minister said that the BJP leaders were making baseless allegations with an eye on the forthcoming Assembly elections. “They know that it will be a tough task for them to come to power. They expected good response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s public meetings. Modi visited Karnataka on three occasions but people were not enthused’’, the minister said.

Coming down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for describing Siddaramaiah government as a 10 percent government, the minister said that he did not expect the prime minister to stoop to such a low level. “I have never come across a prime minister stooping so low. His allegations are an insult to 6.50 crore Kannadigas’’, he said.

Objecting to prime minister’s allegation on the alleged kickbacks in the steel flyover project which was finally scrapped, he said the project was proposed during the BJP regime. “Even a group D employee will make such baseless allegations. I wonder how come prime minister speaks such blatant lies’’, he asked.

Paper Tiger

Ridiculing BJP leaders for describing BJP national president Amit Shah as a tiger, the minister has described Shah as a paper tiger. “The BJP leaders have also described Shah as the Lion of Gujarat. I have seen many lions in Karnataka. Lions at Mysuru Zoo are more powerful and better than the so-called lion of Gujarat’’, he said.

No funds for lakes

Criticising Union Minister Prakash Javadekar for issuing wrong statement on allocation of Central funds for the restoration of Bellandur lake, the minister said the union minister, on March 1, claimed releasing of Rs 800 Crore for the development of Bellandur lake. “We have not received funds from the central government. The BDA authorities wrote a letter to the central government seeking the funds for Bellandur lake recently. However, the latter suggested to the BDA to utilise its own funds for the restoration of Bellandur lake’’, the minister said.

Funds for sub-urban train services

The minister blamed the BJP leaders for making false claims on the allocation of funds for Bengaluru sub-urban train services. “The BJP leaders have been claiming that central government had sanctioned Rs 17,000 Crore for the suburban train services but actually it has released only Rs 1 Crore till date’’, the minister said.

He said the state government had spent its own funds for the Mainline Electric Multiple Unit (MEMU) train facility. “Union Minister has flagged off the MEMU train at the inaugural function but he did not bother whether the central government has allocated funds for the MEMU train facility’’, the minister for Bengaluru Development said.

Postponement of elections

Citing a media report on the attempts being made to postpone elections to the State Assembly, the minister said the BJP leaders were capable of doing such things. “They know that they will not win more than 50 seats in the forthcoming Assembly elections. They may be planning to postpone the elections and impose President’s rule on Karnataka and hold Assembly elections along with Lok Sabha elections’’, Minister George said.

He said the Election Commission was supposed to announce the election dates on March 5 but now it is said the announcement would be made in April. “We are also waiting for the Election Commission to announce the election schedule. We are ready for the election and we will come to power again’’, George said.