As leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party jumped ship to Congress ahead of the Karnataka Assembly elections, state Congress chief DK Shivakumar on Saturday claimed that a few leaders in the BJP are “fed up” with it and the party is now a “divided house”. “No matter what BJP does, we will come to power. I have advised the party workers to bring Congress to power. Even some people from BJP are fed up with BJP. Now the BJP is a divided house,” Shivakumar said while speaking to the reporters.
Some leaders from the BJP quit the party over the denial of tickets for the upcoming polls and had joined hands with Congress. A six-time BJP MLA and former Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar joined quit the party after being denied ticket from the Hubbali-Dharwad Central Assembly constituency. Shettar, a prominent Lingayat leader later joined Congress and is set to contest from his home turf.
Another BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi also quit the party and joined Congress to contest from the Athani constituency. Shivakumar had alleged on Saturday that legal teams of the BJP are making all attempts to ensure that nominations of the Congress candidates are disqualified ahead of the May 10 Assembly elections.
Shivakumar claimed that Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai personally calls up officials and urged the Election Commission to check the call register of the Chief Minister.
“BJP legal team and Chief Minister’s Office are trying everything to make sure Congress candidates nominations’ are disqualified. I request ECI to collect the call register of the Chief Minister. In Savadatti also, the same thing happened. CM himself called officials,” he had claimed on Saturday.
Retorting to the allegations, Bommai on Saturday said that the Election Commission (EC) is a constitutionally formed body and there is no question of interference. “Election Commission is a constitutionally formed, independent body. It runs by the rules of the Election Commission. So, there is no question of interference. He is scared of his defeat, so he is making baseless, useless allegations every morning. I need not answer all that,” said Bommai.
The 224-seated Karnataka Assembly is slated to go to polls in a single phase on May 10 and results will be declared on May 13.
