Bengaluru: BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa and Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar have accused Congress leaders of twisting the conversation between them in the CD to suit their political needs.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, they alleged that the conversation had been edited with a malafide intention to project as though they were admitting that they had made payments to the high command.

Minister Kumar said he was only referring to what Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had told him during a conversation – that BJP too had given funds to the high command. During the conversation with Yeddyurappa, he was only sharing what the Chief Minister had told him as that would amount to admitting that the Congress had given funds to its high command.

Accusing the Congress of trying to divert public attention from the allegations of receiving a kickback of Rs 65 crore for the steel flyover project and paying Rs 1,000 crore to the party high command, he said the BJP was determined to make this an issue in the Assembly elections to be held in 2018.