Mandya Congress MLA Ravikumar Gowda.
Credit: DH Photo
Congress’ Mandya MLA Ravikumar Gowda (Ganiga) triggered a political slugfest on Monday by claiming that Kittur MLA Babasaheb Patil and Chikmagalur MLA H D Thammaiah were among the Congress MLAs enticed with “Rs 100-crore” offers by the BJP to switch parties.
The Mandya MLA’s sensational allegation comes in the wake of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s recent claim that Congress MLAs were offered Rs 50 crore each to jump ship.
Speaking to reporters in Mandya, Ganiga said: “Realising that MLAs are not falling for 50 (Rs 50 crore), they are giving 100 (Rs 100 crore). Around 50 MLAs have been approached. Kittur MLA Babasaheb Patil and Chikmagalur MLA H D Thammaiah have been contacted. Thirty legislators were offered ministerial berths.” He said he would provide the necessary documents, audio and video, cassette and pen drives.
However, both Patil and Thammaiah denied Ganiga’s claim.
“About a year ago, state BJP leaders had asked me to quit Congress during informal talks, but I had outrightly rejected the offer. Since then, none of them has contacted me, nor am I interested in defecting. I am unaware of Mandya MLA Ravi Ganiga’s statement,” Patil said.
Thamaiah said “nobody” from the BJP had contacted him or given him any monetary offers. Ganiga’s comments led to sharp reactions from the ruling Congress and the Opposition NDA. Home Minister G Parameshwara said that “crores have lost their value now”. “The BJP is known for it. They are experts in conducting ‘Operation Lotus’ (kamala). Not just once, they have done these things in Maharashtra, in our state (Karnataka), Madhya Pradesh and Goa,” he said.
His Cabinet colleague Dr H C Mahadevappa said the BJP had never formed the government in Karnataka through the people’s mandate (touching the magic number of 113 seats out of the total 224 in the Assembly). RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge said the concept of Operation Kamala had risen only in Karnataka.
The Opposition NDA’s reaction varied, with some leaders urging a deeper probe into Ganiga’s comments and others chastising the Mandya MLA for “baseless” claims.
JD(S) leader and NDA’s Channapatna candidate Nikhil Kumaraswamy said “bullets should not be fired in the air,” urging Ganiga to provide documents. BJP MLC C T Ravi urged the high court to consider Ganiga’s statement and register a suo motu case. He added that the MLA and others he named must undertake a lie detector test.