No threat to Karnataka govt, says Mallikarjun Kharge

New Delhi: Amid the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday said there is no threat to the state’s coalition government. At a press conference here, he said there was no crisis for the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) government, which was “stable and strong... and will continue to be so”. The BJP was trying to destabilise the government, Mr Kharge alleged. Earlier this week, two Independent MLAs had withdrawn support from the government. Mr Kharge further alleged that there was a “tradition in the BJP of trading” in MLAs. He said that last year, after the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the BJP went ahead and Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa formed the government, but it could not prove its majority in the Assembly and Mr Yeddyurappa had to resign. He said: “All our 118 MLAs are with us. There is a lot of pressure being applied on them by the top leadership of the BJP, but our MLAs will not budge.” He added that all Congress and JD(S) MLAs would meet Friday, and the Congress legislature party would meet to demonstrate that all the MLAs were still in the alliance and there had been no desertion.

Sensing trouble in the state earlier this week, the AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Mr K.C. Venugopal, was rushed by the party to control the situation in the state. The Congress has alleged that all possible means were being used by the BJP to destablise non-BJP governments in different states.

The BJP also shifted all its Karnataka MLAs to a resort near Gurgaon to ensure all of them stay together. The BJP has claimed Mr Kumaraswamy’s JD(S) was trying to poach its legislators, a charge denied by the JD(S) patriarch, former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.