Operation 'Kamala': HD Kumaraswamy says Congress MLA offered gift; BJP rejects charge

BENGALURU: Just when the dust over resort politics was settling down in Karnataka, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has made fresh allegations of MLA poaching. Reiterating that “Operation Kamala” was still alive and thriving, the CM alleged that a Congress MLA was approached as recently as Thursday evening with “gifts”.

BJP state chief  B S Yeddyurappa, who is heading a statewide tour to survey drought-relief measures taken by the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, has rubbished Kumaraswamy’s allegations insisting that they are mere diversion tactics to take the focus away from his government’s failures.

PM Modi should answer where his party getting money to poach Congress MLAs: Kumaraswamy

“Operation Kamala is still going on. Even last night (Thursday) they called a legislator asking him where “the gift” should be sent to,” Kumaraswamy alleged, adding that the Congress MLA in question had turned down the saffron party’s offer. “It isn’t a small gift ... it is expensive. I want to ask Yeddyurappa where are such expensive gifts coming from?” he said. The CM’s statement comes a day after coordination committee chief Siddaramaiah claimed that there was no ongoing “Operation Kamala.”

Yeddyurappa, in turn, alleged that Kumaraswamy was luring BJP MLAs. “It was the CM himself who approached our Aland MLA and tried to lure him. CM’s frustration exposes that everything is not alright in the government,” Yeddyurappa said in a statement. Yeddyurappa told reporters in Kolar that there was no need for “Operation Kamala” since the government will fall on its own.

Kumaraswamy’s allegations come at a time when Congress is dealing with the crisis of legislators beating each other up. “You will be shell-shocked if someone told you how much it is,” Kumaraswamy said when asked how much bribe was being offered by the BJP to the ruling government MLAs.