CM’s air travel expenses soar

• Rs. 12.23 crore in 2023-24 to Rs. 21.11 crore in 2024-25;
• Rs. 14.03 crore between October and November 2025

Belagavi: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s air travel expenditure has surged dramatically, setting the stage for a major political flashpoint.

Official records tabled before the Legislative Council reveal a steep and consistent rise in Government spending on chartered aircraft and helicopters over the past three financial periods.

According to detailed expenditure statements, the State spent Rs. 12.23 crore on the Chief Minister’s chartered flights in 2023-24. This figure jumped sharply to Rs. 21.11 crore in 2024-25, an increase of nearly 75 percent in a single year.

What is poised to provoke the strongest response from the Opposition is the bill for the following period. A separate annexure shows that Rs. 14.03 crore was spent between October and November 2025 alone — a span of just two months.

The two-month expenditure nearly matches the entire spending of 2023-24, prompting Opposition leaders to term it “uncontrolled rise” in VIP travel costs.

The information was furnished in a written reply to BJP MLC N. Ravi Kumar, who sought item-wise details of the Chief Minister’s air travel bills.

Fixed-wing flights to metropolitan hubs

The data, compiled by the Public Works Department’s Buildings Division, covers helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft hired for official tours within Karnataka and to cities such as New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Shirdi.

The records cite extensive helicopter travel to Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Udupi, Chitradurga, Haveri and Bidar, in addition to fixed-wing flights to metropolitan hubs. Many entries are labelled “Chief Minister and others aircraft sector,” indicating that the aircraft were hired for delegations accompanying the CM during official visits.

BJP leaders are expected to launch a more aggressive attack on the Congress Government, arguing that such steep and recurring expenditure is unjustifiable at a time when Karnataka is facing financial strain, drought advisories and mounting demands for increased  welfare allocations.

Political observers point out that the upward trajectory — Rs. 12.23 crore, Rs. 21.11 crore, and Rs. 14.03 crore in just two months — gives the Opposition a concrete and quantifiable issue to spotlight mismanagement and misplaced priorities.

With the legislature’s winter session underway, the revelations are likely to dominate proceedings as both sides prepare for a heated confrontation over transparency, financial discipline and the rising cost of governance.