BENGALURU: Amid Congress’s attempt to show its might with a party meeting on Friday, state Bharatiya Janata Party chief BS Yeddyurappa seemed unfazed.
“I’m not bothered about their Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting. That is left to Congress and JDS. Why should I comment about it? They’re telling many things, I’m not responsible for that,” said Yeddyurappa.
“Our 104 MLAs are worried about our party and preparing for Lok Sabha elections,” added the senior BJP leader.
Amid accusations of poaching MLAs, Yeddyurappa – who returned to Karnataka on Thursday – asserted that his party was not involved in any operation to topple the government.
Our party MLAs were also flying back from Gurugram, where they are staying for the past few days, he added.
Political turmoil hit Karnataka on Monday after both the ruling coalition of Congress-JD(S) and BJP hurled charges of horse-trading against each other.
The BJP has strongly denied the poaching allegations and said that its legislators were in Delhi last week for a party meet with national leadership, at a private resort in Gurugram, Haryana. The party further claimed that the coalition was attempting to poach its legislators.
Amid the exchange of horse trading charges by the three major parties in the state, two legislators withdrew their support to the coalition government on Tuesday. They were R. Shankar of Karnataka Pragnavantha Janata Party from Ranebennur Assembly segment in Haveri district and H.Nagesh, an Independent from Mulbagal constituency in Kolar district.
The coalition partners, however, continued to maintain that the government was stable and that they had the support of all their legislators.
In the 225-member Legislative Assembly, including one nominated member, the Congress has 80 legislators, JD-S 37, and the BJP 104, while one Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLA continues to support the coalition after one Independent Nagesh and the KPJP legislator Shankar withdrew their support.
The coalition government thereby has 118 legislators on its side, while BJP has 104.
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