Bengaluru, Jul 7: A day after the Congress party blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the current political crisis in Karnataka, BJP leader and Union Minister Prahlad Joshi on Sunday termed the allegations "utter nonsense" and said that former chief minister Siddaramaiah is "plotting the drama".
"This is basically an unholy alliance and Mr. Siddaramaiah is behind it and the Congress party is plotting to throw out CM HD Kumaraswamy by plotting all this drama," Joshi told ANI.
When asked about Congress blaming Modi for the resignations their coalition's 11 MLAs, the Parliamentary Affairs Minister said, "It is utter nonsense of the Congress party. The party has become leaderless. There is no asker and teller in the party."
Attacking Modi, Congress communications chief Randeep Singh Surjewala had tweeted, "'Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram' have attained a new meaning - Mischievously Orchestrated Defections in India (MODI). Trampling of Constitution & Denigration of Democracy by BJP to topple elected govt of Karnataka by defections is their definition of 'New India'."
The turns of events unfolded as ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition slipped to the brink of collapse following the resignation of 11 of their legislators from the membership of the state Assembly.
Echoing similar sentiments as Joshi's, BJP leader from the state, Basavaraj Ingin, also alleged Siddaramaiah is "greedy" and wants to become the chief minister.
"In Karnataka, alliance government is changing day in and day out. It is revealed unchallengeable that former CM Mr. Siddaramaiah is behind the drama staged in Karnataka politics. His intention is to unseat Kumaraswamy and take over as the chief minister of Karnataka. He is just to blame the BJP for having created this scene. He is greedy and wants to be the chief minister," said Ingin.
The state government appears to have fallen into a minority forcing Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is in the US, to cut short his visit. He is expected to fly back here on Sunday.
The strength of the ruling coalition in Karnataka has come down to 105, which is eight short of the half-way mark of 113.
Congress MLAs Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned from the government earlier this week.
Those MLAs, who resigned from the Assembly, include BC Patil, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda, S Hebbar, Mahesh Kumatalli, Gopalayya, Ramesh Jharkiholi, and Pratap Gowda Patil. The dissident MLAs have reached Mumbai and are staying in the Sofitel Hotel.
However, the Congress party is claiming that the state government is "stable".
"The coalition govt of Karnataka is stable. The government is working for the people continuously. The crisis arisen in the political scenario will be tackled by our leaders. Whatever will the party decide we will abide by this," Karnataka Minister UT Kadar told ANI.
The kidnapped schoolboy was rescued by the police and reunited with his parents. Son of a gift shop owner from Basavanagudi area in Bengaluru, Chirag has reportedly told police that decided to make some quick money to spend on cricket betting and gambling after learning kidnap tricks from the ‘Crime Patrol’. According to police, Chirag reached a private school around 3pm on Tuesday on a Bounce rental bike and zeroed in on a fourth standard student who was walking out of school. He told the boy he was his father's friend and that he required help to search for a relative who had gone missing. The boy believed Chirag and rode pillion on the bike. Chirag then engaged the boy in conversation and learnt about his father's business and got his mobile phone number. He then made a call to the boy's father, demanded Rs 5 lakh and warned him against approaching cops. However, the boy's father alerted Cottonpet police and special teams were formed to crack the case. While Cottonpet inspector Venkatesh TC's squad verified CCTV footage in and around the school, Chamarajpet inspector BG Kumaraswamy's team started tracking the suspect's mobile phone movements. An hour later, the suspect's location was traced to a hotel on the Lavelle Road-St Mark's Road stretch. Police rushed there, rescued the boy and arrested Chirag.
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