Cong Attacks BJP For 'Brazen Attempt' to Destabilise Karnataka Govt

Bengaluru: The Congress on Wednesday slammed the BJP for its "brazen attempt" to destabilise the party's coalition government with Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka.

A political crisis is brewing in the state, where two Independent MLAs Tuesday withdrew support to the seven-month-old ministry amid charges of poaching by the ruling coalition and BJP.

The BJP's Karnataka MLAs have been camping at a resort in Haryana in an "effort to thwart any poaching attempt" by the ruling JDS-Congress coalition.

"The entire confusion has been created by the BJP. Was that really required? They did it brazenly throwing morality

and ethics to the wind. It is shameful and disgusting," Karnataka Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao told PTI.

Blaming prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP national president Amit Shah for the current political crisis is

Karnataka, Rao said the party under their aegis has become "anti-constitutional."

"The topic for discussion should not be the stability of our government but what BJP has reduced to under Modi and Amit Shah. The BJP today has become an anti-constitutional party.

"It is misusing the government machinery to threaten the MLAs and their rivals," he alleged.

Allaying fears over the stability of the Congress-JDS dispensation, Rao said, "All our MLAs are intact and nobody is going anywhere. They are all with us together."

The party has taken measures to address whatever grievances some people have but all the MLAs are very much in the party and nobody is going away, he added.

After two MLAs-- R Shankar and H Nagesh-- withdrew their support to the government on Tuesday, rumour mill has been agog that the government's fall was imminent as many other Congress MLAs may follow suit and resign from their respective constituencies.

Despite claims that all the MLAs were with the party, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Umesh Jadhav remained incommunicado.

Congress spokesperson Subhash Agarwal said these two MLAs may not be in touch at this moment but they were very much in the party.

"Our party is stable. Those two MLAs withdrawing support is of no consequence. Numbers are in our favour and there is no threat to the government," he said.