K’taka turmoil: Cong, JD-S prepare for show of strength

Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 16

The Congress and Janata Dal-S today exuded confidence in the stability of their coalition government in Karnataka and said the ruling dispensation was safe, despite BJP’s “desperate machinations”. The BJP, however, claimed the coalition was on the verge of “collapse” owing to “internal contradictions”.

Party spokesperson GVL  Narasimha Rao accused the coalition of trying to poach the state BJP MLAs and said its “desperate attempt” to shore up numbers would come to nought.

A senior BJP leader said the party would “wait and watch” as to how the differences within the alliance played out before taking a call on its next move. “Let the state unit decide and then we will deliberate over it,” he said.

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Mallikarjun Kharge, speaking separately on the behalf of JD-S and Congress in Bengaluru and Delhi, respectively, declared that there was no threat to the alliance government in Karnataka and that speculation on the issue was “baseless and motivated”. Both slammed the BJP for “spreading rumours”.

Kumaraswamy went to the extent of warning the media of “loss of credibility for peddling lies” and added: “I am relaxed. I know my strength. My government is stable. Don’t worry.”

In Delhi, Kharge reiterated the same message on Congress’ behalf and said the BJP was doing its best to poach MLAs in a repeat of “Operation Lotus” but “won’t succeed”.

Both JD-S and Congress said they would meet in Bengaluru tomorrow to prepare for a show of MLA strength. The ruling coalition claims the support of 118 MLAs, a safe number in a House of 224 even after the resignation of two Independent MLAs — H Nagesh and R Shankar — who walked out of the ruling dispensation following differences over Cabinet reshuffle.

Kharge, the Lok Sabha MP from Karnataka’s Gulbarga  and the Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha, today said: “The Karnataka Government is safe. It will run its full term. The BJP is trying its best to destabilise but our 118 MLAs are intact and they are not going anywhere. They will stand by the principles on which they were elected. The BJP is trying to influence our MLAs by telling them we have 10 MLAs on our side, we have 15 on our side. But the truth is they have none.

“Everyone knows what the BJP did in Goa, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. They can try again but they won’t achieve anything. On the contrary, if something is unsafe it’s the BJP legislature party unity in Karnataka. Why else would the BJP herd off 104 MLAs in a five star hotel in Gurugram? What is the explanation?” asked Kharge, accusing the BJP of unleashing investigative agencies like the CBI and the ED on ruling coalition MLAs in order to poach them.

On H Nagesh and R Shankar withdrawing support, Kharge said they were upset after a cabinet reshuffle. “This happens in every party but that does not mean the ruling coalition is under threat,” Kharge said.

Kharge said he had spoken to all Karnataka Congress leaders from the state to the district level and everyone had said the government was safe. “The talk about the instability of our government is a BJP creation, a rumour. We will have a CLP meeting on Friday and you will all know,” Kharge reiterated after AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal met HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru today.

Kharge likened BJP’s attempts at “poaching Congress and JD-S MLAs” to Operation Lotus of 2008 when BS Yedyurappa had similarly tried to win over Opposition MLAs in a bid to save his government.

Amid a brewing political storm in Karnataka, Congress president Rahul Gandhi was yet to return to India after his January 11 and 12 UAE trip.

Cong protests ‘forced vacation’ of BJP MLAs

Gurugram: High drama prevailed outside five-star ITC Grand Bharat resort in Nuh district when Youth Congress workers staged a protest against alleged forced vacation of 104 BJP Karnataka MLAs. The MLAs have reportedly been camping here since the past two days to “thwart any poaching attempt” by the ruling JDS-Congress coalition. TNS