Cong dissidents ready to join BJP? BSY-Amit Shah meeting sparks off speculation

Bengaluru, Jun 26: Is Bharatiya Janata Party secretly planning to overthrow chief minister H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government by snatching some of the disgruntled MLAs from Congress and JD(S)? Karnataka BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa’s sudden visit to Ahmedabad to meet the party’s national president Amit Shah has sparked off such speculations in political circles.

Rumours also doing rounds that Congress dissidents, who are in touch with the BJP leaders, ready to jump ship. However, sources made it clear the BJP’s top leadership is not inclined towards such a move at this juncture, though such  possibility cannot be ruled out in future.

Sources said a section of Congress dissidents had approached Mr Yeddyurappa and was still in touch with him, and this prompted him to think of utilising the opportunity to try his hand at forming a government in the State again. Though sources close to him claimed that it was dissidence within the Congress that had come in handy, other leaders in the BJP denied the party was making any such attempt as of now. “It would be disastrous. The numbers game is stacked against us,” a senior leader said.

In the present scenario, it would be impossible for a breakaway faction from either the Congress or the JD(S) to have enough numbers to avoid the Anti-Defection Law, the leader said, arguing that making 16 MLAs resign and re-contest on BJP ticket would be disastrous for the party’s image in the run-up to 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He added that such a move would also have national-level repercussions as JD(S) national president H.D. Deve Gowda has shrewdly pitched the current JD(S)-Congress government as a move towards opposition unity in the country.