Taking exception to posters with mentions of his family members that have allegedly come up around Bidadi, Union Minister for Heavy Industries H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday accused Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar of being behind a “smear campaign.” The JD(S) has also urged people to participate in the padayatra on June 21 from Anchipura to Hosuru, in which Nikhil Kumaraswamy will be participating.

The posters carried his and his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy’s photo and claimed that both owned 100 acres, he said.

“I had assumed that after becoming the Chief Minister, he would stop resorting to such tactics, but he has not. I will not be weakened by the personal attacks and my fight will only become intense,” the Union Minister told presspersons here.

Stating that defaming was the last resort of those who were incapable of confronting issues politically, he said, “This is exactly what Mr. Shivakumar is doing by indulging in a poster campaign to malign me. They have used my wife’s photographs.” He claimed that posters were also put up against R. Ashoka, Chalavadi Narayanswamy and B.Y. Vijayendra.

The Union Minister claimed that the total extent of land in his name was 46 acres, which he purchased four decades back. “Anita Kumaraswamy (his wife) has purchased about 37 acres,” he said. Pointing fingers at the Chief Minister, he alleged, “This is the man with the dubious history of grabbing land by obtaining the thumb impression of a deceased person. The same person who usurped land in Benniganahalli is now getting posters put up through his associates.”