Karnataka’s five-acre headache returns
BJP accuses Congress chief Kharge’s family over a KIADB land allotment. The documents? Still missing. Telangana’s interest here is simple: when the Congress runs Karnataka, water policy isn’t the only thing that needs sunlight.
The five-acre KIADB controversy remains without the key documents.
The BJP has publicly accused Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and his family of benefiting from an allegedly irregular Karnataka land allotment — five acres from KIADB in 2024 to a family-linked Siddharth Vihar Trust for “aerospace/defence R&D”. That is the BJP’s charge, made on June 24 by spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari in Delhi. According to Akashvani, he even put a ₹100 crore tag on the plot and said the trust had no experience. Those are allegations, not findings.
Here is what is on paper so far: the accusation exists. What is not supplied in the material the BJP waved around are the basics — the KIADB allotment order, the trust’s eligibility file, the valuation basis, or any official finding. The Indian Express has explained the controversy around the same five acres and linked the trust to members of the Kharge family; a different report records Priyank Kharge’s response that the allotment followed rules and that the trust decided to return the land after the row. Return accepted by KIADB, when and how? Not shown in the records we have.
For Telangana readers watching the Congress’s Karnataka government pinch Krishna flows with one hand and insist on its spotless governance with the other, this matters. If the BJP has the paperwork, put it out. If the Congress president’s family followed the rulebook, show it. What we do have right now is a BJP press briefing and a Congress silence from the top — the Congress government in Karnataka has not bothered to answer the charge with documents.
So we will: name the file, publish the order, and end the drama. Until then, it is a ₹100 crore press conference without the PDF.