Face of Nation : The BJP is engineering defections to overthrow governments in states not ruled by the BJP, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, a day after 11 lawmakers of the Congress-JDS coalition in Karnataka resigned. They were flown to Mumbai in a private jet and herded into a five-star hotel on Saturday night.
“The BJP is trying to sabotage non-BJP governments. They want to weaken regional parties. This is not right. It hasn’t been a year since the Karnataka election. I’m scared, where’s democracy in this country? BJP arranged special flights for them,” said Mr Kharge, as the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition government in Karnataka appears to be teetering on the edge.
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is still in the US on a private trip. Eight Congress and three Janata Dal Secular legislators submitted their resignations to the speaker on Saturday afternoon, while he was not in office. The legislators then also met the governor at the Raj Bhavan before being flown out to Mumbai.
If the resignations are accepted, the ruling coalition will no longer have majority in the assembly.
Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa said his party has nothing to do with the resignations. “I am going to Tumakuru and will come back at 4 pm. You know about the political developments. Let’s wait and see. I don’t want to answer to what HD Kumaraswamy and Siddaramaiah say. I am nowhere related to this,” Mr Yeddyurappa told.
Mr Kharge denied reports he could be made the chief minister. “These are all flimsy information being fed to the press just to divide us,” he said.
H Vishwanath, a lawmaker of the chief minister’s JDS, who gave his resignation to the assembly Speaker, had resigned as JDS state president just days ago.
Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar, the Congress troubleshooter who has spent many months trying to keep the flock together, coaxed three Congress lawmakers, including Ramalinga Reddy, to go with him, after meeting the rebels at the speaker’s office but they later went to the Raj Bhavan. Mr Shivakumar also conceded that he tore up resignation letters of the rebelling lawmakers, as alleged by Mr Yeddyurappa, defending the action as one out of “emotion”.
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and Mr Shivakumar called an emergency meeting of legislators and corporators. Besides the Chief Minister, state Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao is also away, but is rushing back to Bengaluru.
The Congress and JDS together have 116 in the 224-member state assembly where 113 is the majority mark. The coalition will crash if 14 lawmakers quit. The year-old coalition, wobbly from the start, has struggled with revolt and infighting since it came to power in May last year.
The BJP, which has 105 legislators, says the party has nothing to do with the walkout by the Congress legislators – and says if the government falls, the BJP should be invited to form government.
