BackSiddaramaiah alleges BJP has abducted 2 Congress legislators
The allegation came ahead of a trust vote in the Karnataka assembly, ordered by the Supreme Court
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New Delhi: Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had abducted newly elected legislators of the Congress and kept them in captivity, ahead of Saturday’s trust vote.
Addressing a press conference in the city, Siddaramaiah said two of the Congress’ newly elected legislators—Anand Singh from Vijayanagara and Pratap Gouda Patil from Maski—had been abducted and kept in captivity before the crucial trust vote in the assembly, where the BJP will have to prove it has the required numbers to form the government.
The allegations came hours after the Supreme Court on Friday ordered a floor test in the Karnataka assembly where the BJP, which emerged as the single-largest party in Tuesday’s verdict with 104 seats, will have to prove it has at least 112 legislators to claim a majority.
The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), with 78 and 38 (including one from its pre-poll partner, Bahujan Samaj Party) seats, respectively, formed a post-poll alliance to stake claim to form the government.
The BJP will require at least eight more legislators to cross the revised halfway figure of 112, with this number set to come down to 111 as JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, who won from two seats, has to vacate one. Newly elected legislators from both the Congress and the JD(S) are in Hyderabad currently and will reach Bengaluru by Saturday morning to thwart any attempts by the BJP to poach their members and help it win the trust vote.
Apart from the three main parties, one seat each went to the BSP, Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party and an independent candidate.
Despite the Congress and the JD(S) showing they had 117 seats of the 222 that went to the polls on 12 May, Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala invited B.S. Yeddyurappa of the BJP to form the government. Yeddyurappa took oath as the 23rd chief minister of the state on Thursday, amid protests and allegations by opposition political parties of partisan behaviour by the BJP.
Meanwhile, the Congress party released what it said was a call recording of mining baron G.Janardhana Reddy allegedly trying to bribe a Congress leader.
Siddaramaiah said that Yeddyurappa, in his letter to the governor, had sought only seven days to prove his majority, but that Vala granted him 15. This, Siddaramaiah said, was unprecedented in the history of Indian politics.
The former chief minister said the top leadership of the BJP, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party chief Amit Shah, were using strong-arm tactics to get a favourable verdict in the trust vote.
Siddaramaiah alleged that using unconstitutional methods and investigating agencies against political opponents was a “murder of democracy" and a “clear violation of the Constitution".
Meanwhile, the governor appointed the BJP’s newly elected member from Virajpet, K.G. Bopaiah, as the pro tem speaker. However, it is not clear whether Bopaiah will conduct the trust vote.
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