BENGALURU: RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge on Saturday hit out at BJP national general secretary (organisation) BL Santhosh over the latter’s recent claim that 40-45 Congress leaders were in contact with him.
Taking on the BJP leader, Priyank challenged Santhosh to poach at least 4 Congress MLAs in a month. “@blsanthosh a challenge to him, We will give a month, not a day, to show whether our government can be overthrown or shaken. Apart from all this, another challenge is, let the Leader of the BJP Legislature Party and the Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House be selected and shown within a week. Do you have the courage and strength to accept this challenge?” the minister tweeted. Later, speaking to the media, Priyank said that the BJP has been “running the business of Operation Lotus” in all the states. “Santhosh should answer from where the money is coming from...,” Priyank added.
He also hit out at the BJP for tweeting a meme targeting Congress MP Rahul Gandhi. “Congress has failed Karnataka, Take your dynast away!” the BJP Karnataka had tweeted.
“Hey desperate @BJP4Karnataka FYI (For Your Information), in Karnataka, one of every six candidates announced by you in the last state elections is a dynast. Either you are too scared to debate on it or your candidates are ashamed of their lineage or too embarrassed to acknowledge it in public. I will be extremely happy to arrange a mass DNA test for your party”, he tweeted. He listed names of former CM Basavaraj Bommai, B.Y. Vijayendra & B.Y. Raghavendra, Tejasvi Surya among others. “The list is endless. This is just Karnataka’s list, BJP should take up this #DNAchallenge throughout India”, he suggested.
The investigation into the multi-crore Bitcoin case is in progress as the Congress government has set up an SIT, Priyank said.
“I had earlier said that if the probe had happened during the BJP government, Karnataka would have seen the third CM from that party,” he said. On “disgruntled” Congress MLAs, Priyank asked them to be patient as the government is just 100 days old.