Bengaluru, March 2 Senior BJP leader R Ashoka on Monday alleged that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has allowed intelligence agencies to track the activities of MLAs who support Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar.
Referring to a media report, he said that the CM uses intelligence agencies to spy on his rivals within his own party in order to protect his position.
"So now, the State Intelligence has a new full-time job – tracking the attendance of D K Shivakumar's faction at dinners," Ashoka, who is the Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Assembly, said on 'X'.
The BJP leader alleged that while drug factories are being run unchecked, communal tensions are rising and law and order has weakened, the top priority of this government is to count MLAs and 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 good governance, not surveillance politics, he said Siddaramaiah must stop misusing state intelligence for personal political survival.
Amid a power struggle between Siddaramaiah and his deputy Shivakumar, 40 MLAs loyal to the latter gathered in a hotel in Bengaluru and reportedly discussed how to ensure their leader becomes the chief minister.