Bengaluru: While Congress activists are burning effigies of BJP leaders Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in the backdrop of Income Tax raids on Karnataka Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, the Congress strongman’s mother Gowramma thinks Chief Minister Siddharamaiah is the man behind the raids.

“Siddharamaiah has always been sharpening the knife against my son. He could be behind the I-T raids,” Gowramma told reporters who visited her house in Kanakapura taluk. Gowramma’s house was also searched by I-T Department officials.

Gowramma said her son had many enemies in political circles, including the Congress, as he was scaling the political ladder quickly. Suspecting a conspiracy against him, she said: “They are jealous of my son and they want to harm him. Siddharamaiah makes use of my son and has repeatedly betrayed him.”

Gowramma continued, “My sons (Shivakumar and D.K. Suresh) have been toiling to build the party. In fact, Siddharamaiah progressed in his political life because of Shivakumar. But today, the CM is announcing Anna Bhagya and Ksheera Bhagya, did he get money for these programmes from his father’s house?”

She said her sons were serving the country and have not snatched anything from others. “Why has Siddharamaiah not come out and asked I-T officials why they are raiding my son?” she asked. Later, she said the raids were political vengeance by PM Modi.

The allegations by Shivakumar’s mother baffled journalists, as she was taking pot-shots at the CM at a time when Congress leaders, including Siddharamaiah, have criticised the BJP central leadership for unleashing the IT Department against Shivakumar.

A Congress leader said: “We don’t know why she is speaking against the CM. Maybe her statements were based on what she has been told about her son’s political equation with                             Siddharamaiah.”