Karnataka Politics: Uncertainty continues, Charges Keep Flying

Bangalore, Oct 21 (DC): Coming down heavily on the BJP for luring Congress and JD (S) MLAs, Janata Dal (S) state unit president, H.D. Kumarswamy on Wednesday said that the Janata Dal (S) legislators were willing to resign en masse from their membership of the House if Chief Minister, B. S. Yeddyurappa wants to run the government without any Opposition on the floor of the house.

Speaking to reporters here, Mr Kumarswamy said, “Why does he (Mr Yeddyurappa) want elections in the state for one seat or two seats? Instead, let him and the BJP leaders come out openly and state they do not want a single Opposition member in the House.”

He said re-launching Operation Kamal showed gross disrespect to the people’s mandate. “Even after people gave them 110 seats and he secured help from the six independents, Mr Yeddyurappa should have striven hard to give good governance instead of opting to launch an operation to destabilse Opposition parties. This apart, he never focused his energy towards the development of the state instead he indulged in nepotism,” charged Mr Kumaraswamy.

He added that he was not one to run away from the battleground half way and would soon come out with more scams involving Cabinet rank ministers. Home minister, R. Ashok would be the first in his list, he said. “Mr Ashok needs to guard himself now. I have several documents related to his involvement in several scams, I will soon release them one by one in the days to come,” he asserted.

When asked whether he too would protest in front of Mr Yeddyurappa’s house against the Operation Lotus III, Mr Kumaraswamy shot back and asserted that he does not have to protest in front of Mr Yeddyurappa’s house instead, he would like to draw people’s attention towards Operation Lotus.

Mr Kumaraswamy alleged that the BJP took the help of industrialists and mine lords to keep the legislators locked inside a plush resort for nearly a week. “On the contrary, our legislators were free and they could meet anyone who they wished to, even when they were in a resort," he claimed.

ANGRY HDK

A clearly defensive JD(S) leader maintained that he did not have to furnish accounts about his party legislators staying in resorts since the crisis began on October 6. “Who are you to question us? Why do you think our legislators are incapable of paying their own bills? The entire expenses are being borne by the legislators themselves,” he said, clearly miffed.

There was more. Mr Kumarswamy said the party decided to stay put in resorts. “We will not move out of the resort until this government is brought down,” he thundered.

Cong: Horse trading will lead to fall of govt

The state Congress leaders said on Wednesday that they were going to do little to stop the depletion of legislators from their ranks, saying their strategy was to show the BJP up for horse-trading, in the hope that it would grab attention in Delhi and lead to the BJP government’s dismissal in the state. The legislative Assembly would then be kept under suspended animation.

Congress party leaders strongly feel that “the BJP’s Operation Lotus-III will boomerang in the face of the ruling party as wooing legislators from the Opposition amounts to horse trading”.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader in the Congress said they were aware of the fact that the BJP leaders were in contact with nearly half a dozen Congress legislators since the crisis began in the state.

“We are not in a position to prevent anything now. The BJP is in contact with legislators like Krishnrajnagar MLA S.R. Mahesh, H.P. Manjunath of Hunsur, M. Narayanswamy of Bangarpete and Malikaiya Guttedar from Afzalpur. The BJP is offering whopping sums of money along with ministerial berths which is very tempting.,” the top level source said.

Meanwhile, Union labour minister Mallikarjun Kharge met home minister P. Chidambaram and is believed to have raised the issue of horse-trading campaign allegedly being initiated by BJP in Karnataka.