Yeddyurappa trying to buy peace with me: Kumaraswamy

Seeking to give a new twist to his ongoing war against the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Karnataka over alleged land scams, Janata Dal - Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy on Saturday claimed Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had made a vain bid to patch up with him.

"Two days ago, a right hand man of Yeddyurappa had a telephonic talk (with me) to say the chief minister wanted to strike a compromise with me to end the expose of the misdeeds of his government," said Kumaraswamy.

His claim came on a day when Yeddyurappa launched his advertisement campaign in a section of the local media about alleged land scams during the regimes of former prime minister H D Devegowda and Kumaraswamy.

Kumaraswamy, who has been releasing documents to back his allegations of nepotism and corruption against Yeddyurappa that almost cost him his post, refused to identify the man who tried to approach him when he was in Delhi.

"That man wanted to fly to Delhi by a special flight to meet me, but I declined," the former chief minister said. "I have evidence to prove this. I will make this public soon."

Lambasting Yeddyurappa for his statement in Hassan that he would continue to "expose Gowda and his family's misdeeds till they beg me to stop", Kumaraswamy declared, "We will never beg him. Let him continue. We will bring up more evidence against Yeddyurappa."

He also claimed Yeddyurappa had called on him at his office in 2005 and sought Rs five crore to repay a loan he had taken from BJP general secretary H N Anantkumar. At that time, Yeddyurappa had wanted to quit his party and join the JD-S, claimed Kumaraswamy.

"Yeddyurappa begged me for a ministerial post then," Kumaraswamy claimed.

The advertisements published on Saturday refer to the allotment of an industrial site to Kumaraswamy in Mysore and some other sites by the Mysore Urban Development Authority to persons believed to be close to Gowda family.

Kumaraswamy said he got the allotment of the industrial site in 1984, when he had not even entered politics. "I was not the chief minister then. If Yeddyurappa does not have correct information, let him ask me, I myself will provide it. Let him not make baseless allegations."

Hitting out at the chief minister, he said, "Yeddyurappa, whose family is immersed in scams, has no right to preach lessons on morality and probity to me." He alleged that Yeddyurappa had sent teams of officials to 43 sub-registrar offices 'to dig out evidence in support of his charge that Gowda and his family had amassed assets, but so far they could find nothing.

"Let the government confiscate if we have any benami property. We will not spare you. Don't try to take my father's name. You can't cast a slur on me or my family. Let me see who will go to jail. Whether your family or my family," he said, stepping up his attack on his one-time coalition partner.

Kumaraswamy said, "I accept a challenge that the day we beg before Yeddyurappa, I will hang myself in public."