BENGALURU: The political heat in Karnataka went up several notches on Thursday with Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and BJP State president BS Yeddyurappa firing fresh salvos at each other and issuing threats and warnings.
The two leaders sparred over allegations of land grab and even threatened each other with investigations. Kumaraswamy warned, “I have the government in my hand and by tomorrow morning I can open up his (Yeddyurappa’s) case files.”
Not one to take such a warning lying down, Yeddyurappa reminded him that the BJP was in power at the Centre.
Escalating the war of words, Kumaraswamy accused Yeddyurappa of attempting another ‘Operation Lotus’- the infamous phrase used against BJP for allegedly attempting to poach MLAs.
Asserting that he is in the know of BJP approaching Congress and JD(S) MLAs, he said the BJP has been speaking of hijacking MLAs to Mumbai and Pune and bringing them back to Raj Bhavan with “military force”.
“I know the BJP has been calling MLAs like Suresh Gowda and C S Shivalli. They have told them that 18 MLAs are ready to fly down to Mumbai or Pune and they need two more as backup. BJP has said that legislators will be brought down to Raj Bhavan with military force,”
Kumaraswamy alleged even as he added that Nagamangala’s JD(S) MLA Suresh Gowda was in talks with the BJP at a private club in Bengaluru. Kumaraswamy was speaking to the media after visiting minister D K Shivakumar who is currently recuperating from food poisoning at a hospital in Bengaluru.
Kumaraswamy’s stinging attack comes a day after Yeddyurappa accused the Chief Minister’s family of grabbing land illegally.
“Yeddyurappa is my senior in age and in politics but he should watch his words. He has called my father and me plunderers but he is the father of percentage politics in the state. He should stop calling us looters,” Kumaraswamy said.
Kumaraswamy followed up his warning with a call for rebellion against BJP during a public address in Hassan later in the day.
Following Kumaraswamy’s call, youth Congress members tried to gherao Yeddyurappa’s house in Bengaluru — a move that the BJP deemed unconstitutional and demanded that the Chief Minister step down for instigating violence against Yeddyurappa.
Reiterating his allegations of land grab against Kumaraswamy and his family, Yeddyurappa said, “Kumaraswamy is indulging in vindictive politics by threatening probe. His Chief Minister post is not permanent. I will not bow down to such threats. If you are in power at the state level, we are in power at the Centre.”
Leaders of the BJP took to social media to accuse Kumaraswamy of instigating violence against Yeddyurappa. In a press conference later in the day, they claimed that JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and his sons deserved a PhD in land grabbing. The party also urged the police to book Kumaraswamy under sedition charges.
Meanwhile, state Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao who returned from New Delhi after a meeting with Rahul Gandhi said that reports of 22 MLAs being flown to Maharashtra by BJP were false and all Congress legislators were with the party.
The party intended to parade MLAs who have been speculated to have cracked a deal with the BJP to rubbish reports.
However, no such MLA was part of the press conference. Rao also warned his party’s legislators against misguiding the media.
“No legislators of our party should misguide the media and send across a wrong message,” he said.