Samajwadi to Majawadi: BJP slams Siddaramaiah on flight travel expenses

Mangalore Today News Network

Bengaluru, December 12, 2025: BJP leader CT Ravi took a dig at Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah after newly released government records revealed that the state spent more than Rs 47 crore on his helicopter and chartered aircraft travel between May 2023 and November 2025. Questioning Siddaramaiah’s ’socialist’ image, the BJP leader said he has transformed from "Samajwadi" to "Majawadi" (a political term suggesting his luxury and personal enjoyment).

"From ’Samajwadi’, Siddaramaiah is now ’Majawadi’. He avoids roads because of the poor conditions. The people of the state are paying for his air travel," Ravi said.

Siddaramaiah’s economic advisor and Congress MLA Basavaraj Raya Reddy, responding to the criticism, said he is using it for official tours.

"He’s 79, and he’s only using it for official tours. What’s wrong with this? It’s not a big amount in comparison to the thousands of crores spent by the Prime Minister," he said.

Siddaramaiah’s air travel expenses were disclosed in a written reply to a question raised by BJP MLC N. Ravi Kumar, who had sought the details. According to the data, the state government spent Rs 12.23 crore on chartered flights for the Chief Minister and his entourage during the 2023-24 financial year. The records list frequent trips between Bengaluru’s HAL Airport and districts such as Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi and Kalaburagi.

For 2024-25, the charter bill surged to 21.11 crore. Detailed entries showed extensive multi-sector tour programmes, especially in early 2024, including helicopter travels to Udupi, Chitradurga, Haveri, Bidar and Kalaburagi, in addition to fixed-wing flights to Chennai, Hyderabad and other metropolitan destinations.

A separate annexure covering October 2025 to November 2025 lists an additional Rs 14.03 crore spent on chartered services, with many entries labelled as ’CM and others Aircraft sector’.