BS Yeddyurappa claims 20 Congress legislators will jump ship after Lok Sabha results

HUBBALLI/KALABURAGI: State BJP president BS Yeddyurappa has not given up efforts to become chief minister again. On Friday, the Lingayat strongman claimed his party will come to power with the help of disgruntled Congress MLAs after results for the Lok Sabha polls are declared on May 23.
Yeddyurappa claimed as many as 20 Congress MLAs, who are unhappy with the way the JD(S)-Congress coalition government is functioning, are ready to switch sides to the BJP.
“We are 104 MLAs now and after the two assembly bypolls, the number will go up to 106. Another 20 Congress MLAs will also join us,” Yeddyurappa told reporters in Hubballi.
His comments appeared to gain credence as rebel Congress MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi declared in Belagavi he would resign from the assembly, leave the party and join the BJP. He is learnt to have had a meeting with senior BJP leaders of Yamakanmaradi constituency, which is now represented by his brother and minister Satish Jarkiholi, at a private hotel in Belagavi city.
At the meeting, Ramesh is reported to have said the coalition government will be dislodged after May 23 as “four to five Congress MLAs”, including him, will resign. “Our resignations will result in byelections in many constituencies. I will contest the byelection from Gokak,” sources quoted Ramesh as saying.
BSY is greedy: Siddaramaiah
Former chief minister and Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah was quick to respond and slammed Yeddyurappa for claiming that he would return to power.
“There are disgruntled MLAs in all parties,” Siddaramaiah told reporters in Kunchavaram, Chincholi. “In BJP too there are quite a few. But the Congress will not attempt to poach them with inducements. Yeddyurappa should be ashamed that even after burning his fingers by being CM for three days, he is still greedy for the post.”
In Hubballi, KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao, reacting to Yeddyurappa, said: “We keep hearing the same tape again. His only dream now is to sit on the chief minister’s chair.”
Jadhav is ungrateful: Mallikarjun M Kharge
Meanwhile, Mallikarjun M Kharge, Congress leader in the Lok Sabha said Umesh V Jadhav, BJP candidate for the Kalaburagi Lok Sabha seat, had left the Congress after taking all the benefits which were also extended to his family members.
Kharge said Jadhav’s brother-in-law, KT Rathod, was KPCC president and later a minister. His brother was given a ticket twice from the Congress and Jadhav’s nephew, Prakash Rathod, was made MLC twice. “Besides Jadhav, all his relatives enjoyed power in the Congress. Now they are saying the Congress has done him injustice,” Kharge said.