Media reports indicate Congress likely to fail floor test in Karnataka

According to media reports, Karnataka Water Resources Minister and Congress leader D. K. Shivakumar claimed that three of his party’s MLAs are camping in Mumbai and may join the BJP soon. A BJP source further claimed that Congress MLAs Anand Singh from Vijayanagara, Nagendra from Ballari Rural and Ramesh Jarkiholi from Gokak are in close talks with the saffron party. Ramesh Jarkiholi, former Small Scale Industries Minister and a dropout from the Congress had earlier claimed Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka may collapse at any moment.

Shivakumar further claimed that the BJP has launched “Operation Kamala” in the state. Operation Kamala is saffron party’s statewide movement aimed at strengthening the party in Karnataka. He also added, “We have all the information on which Congress MLAs BJP has approached and how much money they have offered. We will expose them thoroughly”. Expressing his unhappiness over Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s attitude towards rebel leaders, he added, “Our Chief Minister minister is a bit lenient towards the BJP. By ‘lenient’, I mean he is not exposing the facts he knows. All the MLAs have conveyed to the chief minister about the ongoing conspiracies. They have also told Siddaramaiah about it. The Chief Minister is adopting a policy of wait and watch. If I was in his place, I would have exposed it within 24 hours”.

The Congress-JDS government under HD Kumaraswamy seems to be heading towards instability. There is a high probability that the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka may collapse at any moment. According to a report in Deccan Chronicle, Umesh Katti, a former minister, and BJP MLA from Hukkeri, earlier claimed that the BJP may form the government in the state, as 15 disgruntled MLAs (Assumed to be from Lingayat sect) of the Congress-JD(S) coalition are in touch with the saffron party. On being asked further, he refused to reveal the names of the MLAs. But he went on to add that these MLAs are upset over not being given ministerial posts in the state cabinet and are willing to join the BJP.

Meanwhile, the BJP is focused on gathering enough strength in the State Assembly to bring down the Congress government. Not to forget the fact that in the Karnataka assembly election, BJP emerged as the single largest party winning 104 out of 224 seats. The Congress won 80 seats and allied with the JD(S) which got 37 seats to form government in the state. Three remaining seats went in the favour of others including 1 for the BSP (which allied with the INC later), 1 for Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) and a single seat went to an independent candidate. The equation of seats in the states assembly is going to get more complex If 10 or 12 MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) alliance join the BJP (as predicted).