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Journalism of Courage
FANNING rumours of bids to unseat the Congress government in Karnataka, former minister and BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is believed to have spearheaded the 2019 toppling by the BJP of the Congress-JD(S) regime, on Monday talked of a similar ‘Operation Lotus’.
Speaking to reporters in Belagavi, Jarkiholi said Karnataka could see a BJP government being formed along the “Maharashtra model”, while adding that the blame would lie with Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar if the Siddarmaiah government collapsed.
In Maharashtra, the BJP had not been able to get a majority after the 2019 elections, but came to power last year after a split in the Shiv Sena. Recently, a faction of the NCP led by Ajit Pawar joined hands with the BJP.
While unlike in Maharashtra, the Congress is in a large majority in Karnataka, talk constantly keeps surfacing of BJP efforts to topple the Siddaramaiah government, largely due to differences between the CM and his Deputy, Shivakumar.
On Saturday, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar claimed again of such a threat, a day after Mandya Congress MLA Ravikumar Gowda said that party legislators were being offered Rs 50 crore and ministerial berths to switch loyalties.
“It will happen like in Maharashtra,” Jarkiholi told reporters Monday, when asked about the possibility of the Congress government falling. “No resignation (of MLAs), nothing. If it (the government) falls that is,” he said, insinuating that a large chunk of Congress MLAs would cross over to the BJP side, like the defections in Maharashtra.
Jarkiholi said that the situation in Karnataka was very different from 2019, when the BJP “needed just eight (MLAs)”. “But, if it did, (it will be like) the Maharashtra model. Then our government can be formed… If Siddaramaiah takes the right decisions, it will survive. Or else, it will fall.”
In 2019, Jarkiholi had been one of the 16 MLAs who left the JD(S)-Congress coalition to cross over to the BJP, citing differences with Shivakumar.
Attacking Shivakumar, Jarkiholi said Monday that the Deputy CM would become a “former minister” very soon, referring to the string of investigations against him by various Central agencies. “As per my information, if the government falls, it will be due to D K Shivakumar Company Belagavi.”
Jarkiholi is an MLA from Gokak in Belagavi, a district where the Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar rivalry has been to the fore, reflected in the differences between Public Works Department Minister Satish Jarkiholi and Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar.
