The Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will fall and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar will cause it, BJP leader and former Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi said in Belagavi on Monday.
“Mr. Shivakumar is after power. He will use every trick to see that Mr. Siddaramaiah is unseated,’‘ Mr. Jarkiholi said. He denied reports that the BJP was planning ‘Operation Lotus’, as alleged by Mr. Shivakumar and some legislators.
“We will not bring down this government. We are not interested. Also, it is not possible now. Earlier in 2018, we needed only eight MLAs to change the government. But now, we need higher numbers,’‘ he said.
“We will let them function for five years and prove if they can meet all the promises made to the people in the name of guarantees and other assurances. We will also want the contractors’ association to expose corruption in the government,’‘ he said. Mr. Jarkiholi denied allegations that the previous Basavaraj Bommai government had issued work orders beyond the permissible limits of the State Budget.
He said that Mr. Shivakumar was making baseless allegations against JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy about trying to dislodge the government along with the BJP. “We are working with Mr. Kumaraswamy about the pre-poll alliance between the BJP and JD(S),’‘ he said.
Mr. Jarkiholi said that he was not disturbed by the controversy over his appearance in a sleaze CD. “I have already requested the Centre to hand over the investigation to the CBI. I will ask the State government to do the same,’‘ he said.
Mr. Jarkiholi demanded that Karnataka be renamed after Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and not after Sri Basaveshwara as Minister M.B. Patil had desired.
