Congress leader and Karnataka Water Resource Minister DK Shivakumar has said that the Bharatiya Janata Party's plans to topple the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government with 'Operation Lotus' are real.
DKS alleged that three Congress MLAs are staying in Mumbai with some BJP leaders. He said that horse-trading is happening in Karnataka and that Congress is aware of the deals, including the offers made by BJP.
DKS has named Ramesh Jarkiholi, the MLA of Gokak, Anand Singh, the MLA of Vijayanagara, and Nagendra, the MLA of Ballari Rural, as the three legislators taken by BJP and camped at a hotel in Mumbai.
The infamous strategy started by former BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa known as 'Operation Lotus' is a move to buy over the legislators from the opposition party by bribing them.
Between 2008 and 2013, the BJP had taken 20 MLAs from Congress and JD(S) and made the legislators resign their assembly membership and contest elections.
Shivakumar was unhappy with Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy for being lenient towards the opposition and not exposing the facts that he knows. DKS said that all the MLAs have told the CM about the ongoing conspiracies.
"The chief minister is adopting a policy of wait and watch. If I was in his place, I would have exposed it within 24 hours," said Shivakumar.
This is not the first time the BJP has done this, many legislators from Congress have alleged that they were approached by the BJP to quit their party and join them.
The muscle and money behind Karnataka Congress, DK Shivakumar is still confident that the BJP will not succeed in their attempt to sack the Congress MLAs and will fail miserably to form the government.
"You have been saying that a 'Kranti' (revolution) may happen after Makar Sankranti. Let us see. It is not so easy because there is already anti-defection law in place, but we are aware of what you are hinting at," he said in an apparent reference to BJP in the state.
The state BJP leaders are in New Delhi to discuss their preparations for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
BJP president Amit Shah will brief the state party leaders on the Lok Sabha preparations in a meeting on Monday.
(with PTI inputs)
