BELAGAVI: Claiming that the Congress MLAs were getting offers from the BJP to jump ship, Belagavi Uttar MLA Asif Sait alleged that the BJP was able to topple the government in the state by resorting to ‘Operation Lotus’ in the past, and was now trying to carry out a similar operation.
He claimed that the BJP managed to rope in 10-15 Congress MLAs through Operation Lotus, and went on to form the government in the state.
“Now, the Congress has formed the government with a clear mandate in the state. We have 135 MLAs. The BJP may be reportedly trying to rope in 50 MLAs, but I will tell you that not even five MLAs will switch sides to the BJP this time,” he further claimed.
Asserting that he and his brother Feroz Sait, former MLA of Belagavi Uttar, have been Congressmen for many years, and nobody from other political parties have offered them to quit, he said he would not leave the Grand Old Party even if he received an offer of Rs 1,000 crore to do so.
All 135 MLAs of the Congress are committed to stay with the party, and no one would join the BJP, irrespective of the size of offer that may be made to them to quit, he said, adding that the BJP had been attempting to bring down the state government for the past one year, but in vain.