A fresh political slugfest erupted in Karnataka on Friday between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Union Minister Prahlad Joshi over the state’s ethanol allocation, with both leaders accusing each other of misleading the public.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hit back at Joshi, alleging that the Union Minister had “turned falsehood into his family deity” by misrepresenting ethanol supply figures. “Karnataka’s ethanol allocation for 2024–25 is 47 crore litres, not 116.3 crore litres as claimed by Joshi. These figures were presented by Joshi himself in the Lok Sabha on August 6, 2025,” Siddaramaiah stated. He added that if Joshi’s current claim were true, his parliamentary reply must have been false — either way, “the minister stands exposed as a liar.”

Siddaramaiah argued that Karnataka has consistently been treated unfairly by the Centre. Over four financial years (2021–22 to 2024–25), the state’s distilleries produced 879 crore litres of ethanol, of which only 171 crore litres were procured by oil marketing companies. “This is a blatant injustice to Karnataka’s sugarcane farmers,” he said, contrasting it with Gujarat, where 31 crore litres were purchased out of a production capacity of just 40 crore litres.

The Chief Minister accused Joshi of betraying Karnataka’s farmers instead of supporting them. “Even BJP leaders from Karnataka and Maharashtra have written to Prime Minister Modi seeking an increase in ethanol procurement and a higher Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP). Yet, the Centre remains indifferent,” he said. Siddaramaiah urged Joshi to apologize to farmers and press the Prime Minister to correct what he called a grave injustice.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition R. Ashoka launched a counterattack on the Congress government, accusing it of playing politics instead of addressing farmers’ distress. “The state is toying with the lives of sugarcane growers. The government should immediately announce ₹500 per tonne as subsidy and fix a fair price for sugarcane,” Ashoka demanded.

He alleged that the state had failed to mediate between sugar factories and farmers in time and was now “pretending to hold talks for publicity.” Ashoka further charged that Siddaramaiah was “hiding the truth” about the huge revenue earned by the state from sugar and its by-products while blaming the Centre for political gain.

With sugarcane protests intensifying across north Karnataka, the ethanol debate has added fresh fuel to the Congress–BJP political confrontation.