Another ‘Operation Lotus’ appears in the works in Karnataka with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar alleging on Saturday there was an ongoing attempt to topple the state government.
This acknowledgement came a day after Mandya Congress MLA Ravikumar Gowda made explosive claims about party legislators being offered Rs 50 crore and ministerial berths to switch loyalties.
‘The team that toppled the past JD(S)-Congress government is active again and reaching out to Congress MLAs,’ Gowda had said on Friday.
The Congress party, he said, had the conversations in both audio and video. ‘We have proof of how much they (BJP) have offered Congress MLAs. This will be exposed soon,’ he said, adding that legislators were being asked to come to Delhi for a meeting with Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah.
While denying any knowledge of Rs 50 crore being offered to shift camp, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told reporters in Mangaluru, ‘I have information that the BJP is trying to destabilise our government’.
Shivakumar alleged, ‘A big conspiracy (to topple the government) is on. This will not succeed. Many prominent BJP leaders were behind the attempt’.
Karnataka, where Operation Lotus originated in 2008, saw a second one in 2019 when 17 Congress and JD(S) legislators shifted camp to the BJP toppling the 14-month-old Congress-JD(S) coalition government under H D Kumaraswamy.
Responding to the developments AICC general secretary K C Venugopal posted on X, saying that the party without a leader in Karnataka or an agenda is resorting to their old habit of undoing the people’s mandate.
‘Under the supervision of their masters in Delhi, Karnataka BJP is making yet another laughable attempt of destabilising our Karnataka government,’ said Venugopal.
‘But our INC MLAs are die hard loyalists and this govt is receiving widespread praise for its speedy delivery of Guarantees. Maybe they should find a LOP and party president first,’ he said.
