Cong walks out of LS, BJP refutes charges
NEWDELHI: The Congress on Monday created a ruckus in the Lok Sabha and staged a walkout over alleged attempts to poach their MLAS in Karnataka, a charge that was rejected by the Centre, calling it an “internal fight” between the ruling Congress and the JD(S).
Soon after the House reassembled at noon aft er t he f i rst adjournment over the issue, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge read out a transcript of a taped conversation between a senior BJP leader and the son of a Janata Dal-secular MLA that was released by Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday.
Kharge alleged that the BJP was trying to topple the state government by horse-trading.
“One MLA of my parliamen- tary constituency was given assurance by a top BJP leader. They are indulging in horsetrading.”
Senior JD-S leader and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda said t h e BJ P h a d e a r l i e r launched “Operation Kamala” in 2009 also to poach Congress legislators. He demanded that the government bring a law to stop such operations.
“Such incidents shouldn’t happen. That year, as many as 10 ministers resigned and the government fell,” he said.
Rejecting the charges, Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda dubbed the allegations as “baseless”. “In Karnataka, there is a big internal fight between the Congress and the JD(S)... Everything uttered by Kharge and Gowda is false,” he said. IANS