Allegations of horse-trading fly thick and fast in Karnataka Assembly

Even as Karnataka Assembly Speaker on Friday adjourned the House to July 22 without concluding whether the ruling Congress-JD(S) enjoyed the majority, the ruling party leveled serious allegations against the opposition BJP.

For two days, the Legislative House debated on two core issues—corruption charges and horse-trading tactics of BJP and the Governor’s role in curtailing the power of the legislature by issuing an order to complete the Trust Vote before a stipulated time.

With the Congress-JD(S) government on the brink of collapse with 15 MLAs resigning, and 5 MLAs remaining absent from the Assembly, the legislators who kept silent on BJP’s ‘operation kamala’ until Friday, came out on record to say BJP offered them money.

Also read: It’s worse than just Kar’nataka’; politics as farce

For instance, JD(S) MLA Srinivas Gowda from Kolar named three BJP leaders of offering money to switch sides. “BJP leaders like Ashwathnarayan, C.P. Yogeshwara and S.R. Vishwanath came to my house and offered ₹5 crore and requested me to switch sides. I refused to accept, but they left behind ₹5 crore. Later, they offered ₹30 crore,” Gowda said.

Gowda further said that the money offered by the BJP, he claimed, was just an advance and it promised to give more once the MLA joined the saffron party.

Another JDS minister Sa Ra Mahesh alleged that former JDS state president H Vishwanath had an election-related loan of ₹28 crore and the BJP offered to clear his loans if he switched sides.

Vishwanath is one among the 15 legislators who quit the Assembly and went to Supreme Court complaining about the ruling government.

Allegations of horse-trading, with BJP continuing to lure MLAs with money, poured in even as the national leaders and state BJP unit denied their involvement.

Also read: Karnataka assembly defies governor, trust vote on Monday

In a latest, the Rahim Khan, minister for Youth Empowerment said that the BJP,  besides offering money to him, promised to make him a minister. “I was told I would be the first Muslim BJP minister in the state,” he added.

Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar permitted all the allegations levelled by legislators against any party to go into the record.  “Let all the filth come out before the people,” he said.

Questioning the need and the circumstances which led him to move the motion of confidence, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said, “Legislators were offered ₹40-50 crore by the BJP. Whose money is it? The BJP tried to circumvent the anti-defection law and conspired to bring down this government.”

The Congress members even filed a police complaint alleging BJP abducted MLA Shrimant Patil who went missing from the resort where party MLAs stayed before the trust vote.

BJP legislator C T Ravi, however, questioned the allegations and said, “the MLAs who were offered money could have testified before the Anti Corruption Bureau. But they did not. Why?”