BS Yeddyurappa and Siddaramaiah

Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has lashed out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for allegedly indulging in political contrivance.

Siddaramaiah, the head of the Congress-JD(S) coalition coordination committee, said the saffron party was already in a state of "coma" due to its past deeds after the state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa predicted that the JDS-Congress government would fall. He criticised Yeddyurappa for making such statements and warned BJP against indulging in 'Operation Lotus' again.

'Operation Lotus' was an infamous strategy started by then BJP Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa to buy over opposition party MLAs with money and power. Between 2008 and 2013, the BJP had poached 20 MLAs from JD(S) and Congress, making them resign their assembly membership and contest bypolls.

The Congress leader asserted that the BJP would remain as an opposition party in the state.

"Yeddyurappa (now state BJP chief) has once again made a statement that the government would fall. Already due to several rounds of operations, the lotus (BJP symbol) in Karnataka is in coma. Now once again don't try your hands into the wrong adventure of Operation Lotus," he said in a tweet.

Siddaramaiah's tweet came in response to the repeated comments made by Yeddyurappa and other BJP leaders expressing doubts about the continuance of HD Kumaraswamy-headed coalition government ever since it came to power in May after the elections threw up a hung assembly.

The BJP has been accused of attempting to destabilise the coalition government by trying to poach their MLAs by Congress and JD(S), this charge has been denied by the saffron party.