JD(S) lawmaker claims BJP leaders paid him money to switch loyalties

BENGALURU: Another ruling Janata Dal (Secular), or JD(S), lawmaker in Karnataka on Sunday claimed that opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders allegedly paid him money to switch loyalties.

K Srinivasa Gowda, the JD (S) lawmaker, told reporters in Kolar that BJP leaders CP Yogeshwar and Ashwathnarayana paid him ₹5 crore and promised to give another ₹25 crore. “They asked me to resign from the assembly, but I refused their offer,” he said.

Despite repeated attempts to reach BJP spokespersons, they were not available for comment.

The fresh allegation comes in the backdrop of a clip purportedly recorded during a meeting between BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa and another JD (S) lawmaker Nagangouda Kandkur’s son, Sharangouda.

In the clip, Yeddyurappa is purportedly heard asking Sharangouda to switch his allegiance and promises to pay ₹25 crore and a ministerial berth to his father if he agreed to join the party. Later, another person is heard claiming that speaker K R Ramesh Kumar has been influenced with the promise of ₹50 crore, a charge he has refuted.

Yeddyurappa rubbished the clip and alleged Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy has produced it. He said he was ready to resign if it is proven that the voice in the clip was his even as Yeddyurappa admitted to having met Sharangouda on Friday.

On Sunday, Yeddyurappa condemned Kumaraswamy’s “blackmail politics”. “Kumaraswamy is doing third-grade politics. Blackmail, conspiracies have begun. On the instructions of CM, Sharangouda was sent to guest house where I was staying where he recorded the conversation. Only a part of which [the conversation] was released,” he told journalists at Hubballi ahead of PM Narendra Modi’s visit on Sunday. Yeddyurappa attacked Kumaraswamy for admitting to having asked Sharangouda to go for the meeting. “I said yesterday that speaker Ramesh Kumar is a very upright person. And it is condemnable that they have claimed that I have said I will give him Rs 50 crore,” he said.

K SRINIVASA GOWDA, THE JD (S) LAWMAKER, SAID BJP LEADERS PAID HIM ₹5 CRORE AND PROMISED TO GIVE ANOTHER ₹25 CRORE