2 MLAs quit HD Kumaraswamy camp, Congress calls it non-event

BENGALURU: BJP will have to get 14 Congress MLAs to resign to bring the strength of the Karnataka assembly to 210 where it can have a majority along with two independents, a scenario which sources said was unlikely. Even if BJP achieved this goal, the party may not stake claim to form a government. Instead, it would prefer to see Karnataka going to the Lok Sabha polls under President's rule, said sources in BJP who are not enthusiastic about Operation Lotus 3.0.Kumaraswamy himself was a portrait of nonchalance as he spent most of Sankranti at home, before stepping out to meet Congress general secretary KC Venugopal and watch a review of his actor-son Nikhil's movie Kurukshetra.
MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh, who are holed up in a hotel in Mumbai for the past few days, told reporters that Congress and JD(S) leaders had ill-treated them. While Shankar was miffed after he was thrown out of the cabinet last month, Nagesh was peeved as he was not given a post as promised.
Congress leaders, however, termed the development a non-event. "We will not lose anything by their decision as the coalition government is strong and stable. They will repent their decision in future," Venugopal said. He also blamed BJP for what he called "its ugly and dirty attempt to destabilise the government". "From the very first day this government was formed, BJP has shamelessly been trying to topple the government," he alleged. In New Delhi, senior BJP leader and party's in-charge for Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said the JD(S)-Congress government could not survive its five-year term and would fall on its own due to internal conflicts.