Bengaluru, 2 March

Senior BJP leader R Ashoka on Monday alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has let the intelligence agencies track the activities of the MLAs supporting Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.

Referring to a media report, he said the CM uses intelligence agencies to snoop on his rivals within his own party to protect his chair.

"So now, State Intelligence has a new full-time job - tracking dinner attendance of DyCM DK Shivakumar's faction," Ashoka, who is Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, said in a post on 'X'.

The BJP leader alleged that, though drug factories are run unchecked, communal tensions are on the rise, and law and order have weakened, the top priority of this government is to count MLAs and to shadow political rivals.

"This is the complete politicisation of administration under CM Siddaramaiah. The state machinery exists to protect the people of Karnataka, not to protect your chair," Ashoka charged.

He also took a dig at Congress MP Rahul Gandhi.

"Where is Rahul Gandhi now? The same Rahul Gandhi who lectures about the misuse and weaponisation of institutions is silent now," the former Deputy Chief Minister said.

Stating that Karnataka deserved governance and not surveillance politics, he said Siddaramaiah must stop misusing state intelligence for personal political survival.

Amid a power tussle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy Shivakumar, 40 MLAs loyal to the latter gathered in a hotel in Bengaluru and reportedly discussed how to see their leader become the chief minister.