From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Sept 15: With rumours of BJP’s attempts to topple the HD Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls doing rounds, former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily has turned astrologer to with a prediction that the saffron party will not win more than two Lok Sabha seats in the 2019 general elections if it toppled the State Government in Karnataka.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on Saturday, the former Union Minister said the BJP’s tally in the State would come down from 18 in 2014 to just 2-3 in 2019 if it toppled the Kumaraswamy government.
Moily was speaking to reporters after paying rich tributes to Bharatha Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya on the day of his birth anniversary at Muddenahalli in his Lok Sabha constituency of Chikkaballapur.
The former Karnataka Chief Minister strongly defended Kumaraswamy’s statement on the alleged nexus between illegal lottery “kingpins” and BJP leaders in attempts to topple the coalition government.
Moily said the Chief Minister has not spoken without authentic information.
Kumaraswamy also holds the Intelligence portfolio and therefore he speaks with information gathered by the State intelligence authorities, the Congress leader claimed.
It may be recalled that Friday had claimed that “kingpins” involved in gambling and illegal lottery business were aggregating and supplying money to the Opposition BJP in a bid to topple the coalition government by luring legislators of the governing parties.
Moily, who is representing Chikkaballapur as MP, said the BJP was defeated in the 2013 Assembly elections after it indulged in the “Operation Lotus” by then Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa.
He said no MLA of the Congress and JD(S) would join the BJP despite the “misuse of official machinery’’ by the Narendra Modi-led regime in Delhi which has instilled fear in the minds of opposition leaders.
“Our party MLAs will not fall prey to the BJP’s tactics," Moily asserted.