A day after information surfaced about BJP camping its Karnataka MLAs in Gurugram, in fear of poaching by Congress, Karnataka Minister and Congress leader DK Shivakumar on Tuesday said that all 104 MLAs are still with the party.
“Our MLAs are with us, we are answerable to the people of the constituency, they are not doing any dirty politics. BJP is trying to create a hype in the country on Mahagathbandhan,” Shivakumar told ANI.
“Nobody has contacted me; I am very much in the party,” Congress MLA Anand Singh told the media.
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It all started when charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress alleging that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party’s MLAs to destabilise the JD(S)-Congress alliance government in the state.
BJP’s Karnataka unit president and Leader of Opposition in the Assembly BS Yeddyurappa told media yesterday, “There is no truth in all these rumours. Kumaraswamy is himself trying his level best to contact our MLAs, by offering ministership and money. That is why we are together here (in the NCR). We are not in touch with any of their MLAs. We are only focused on keeping our MLAs energised. We will stay here for one or two days.”
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy accused Yeddyurappa of fabricating stories, adding that there is no need for the Congress-JD(S) alliance to poach on any party’s lawmakers.
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BJP MLAs from Karnataka in Gurugram since Monday evening said that they had assembled to make strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls and had not run away fearing poaching by the ruling Congress-JDS alliance.
Speaking to ANI, Shashikala Jolle, an MLA from Nippani constituency, said: “There are 104 BJP MLAs and we are together. We have been called here to strategise for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. There are no talks of forming the government. If there is anything, our leaders will tell you.”
Another BJP lawmaker Poornima Srinivas said that the BJP does not need to disrupt the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance government, claiming there are internal rifts among their ranks and they will fall out soon.
(With ANI inputs)