BENGALURU: Even as the Congress dismissed Karnataka’s leadership churn as a “media creation,” the Opposition BJP and JDS on Saturday escalated its attack, arguing that the crisis is real, deep and openly acknowledged by the Ruling party’s own MLAs.
Senior BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition in Assembly R Ashoka rejected the Congress line outright, remarking, “The leadership crisis is not a media creation. What about the statements of Congress MLAs--HC Balakrishna from Magadi, HD Ranganath from Kunigal? Are they not Congress MLAs? How can they now dismiss it as hype?”
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, recalling a proverbial Kannada taunt, took a sarcastic swipe at both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar. “Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have now said they will listen to the high command.”
BJP Rajya Sabha member Lahar Singh Siroya delivered one of the sharpest rebukes, likening the party’s predicament to an elephant trapped in a swamp. In a post that went viral, he wrote: “When an elephant is caught in a swamp, even a female frog loves to give it a kick. The Congress high command’s inability to resolve the crisis-other than forcing the two divorced leaders to have a cold breakfast this morning-has landed the party in a swamp. It is never easy for an elephant to get out of a swamp.” Siroya added that the “paralysed state” of the Ruling party had emboldened “big, small, and retired leaders” to offer unsolicited solutions.
The fresh salvo adds to a week of relentless attacks from BJP and JDS, who have dismissed the Siddaramaiah-Shivakumar meeting as political theatre designed to disguise internal tensions.
BJP leaders called it a “makeup show,” accusing Congress of “burying their internal rift through staged unity.” State BJP president BY Vijayendra termed the narrative “bunkum,” linking the alleged power struggle to stalled development and administrative drift.
JDS leader and former CM HD Kumaraswamy, a Union minister, echoed the sentiment, calling the breakfast meeting “drama at the cost of development,” accusing the top Congress leaders of indulging in “chair fights” while farmers faced distress and inflation climbed.