Shivakumar leaves door open for Operation Hasta

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Saturday reiterated his desire to see members of other parties join the Congress.

In the past week, rumours have resurfaced that Congress would poach BJP MLAs who had gone over to the saffron party from the Congress back in July 2019 in the infamous Operation Kamala.

Names that have surfaced are BJP MLA from Yeshwantpur ST Somashekar who Congress reckons would be a strong candidate for the Bengaluru North Lok Sabha seat.

The issue is that the Grand Old Party lacks strong candidates in some constituencies in the general elections. Earlier, the Deputy CM had tried to downplay the poaching efforts claiming it was just local cadre of smaller stature coming over to the Congress since he had given the workers the directive of boosting the party’s vote share.

However, Shivakumar on Saturday defended Congress citing BJP’s infamous poaching of MLAs in K’taka, Maharashtra, MP and Goa.

“Look, Congress party is secular. People who want to build the country and save it will take a call. What had happened in other states in different instances? Was that right? What they did in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, was that correct? People will decide based on their own convenience. Who are you and I to restrict that? How can I disclose whom I met?” Shivakumar said, denying that the poaching was an attempt to distract from the government’s omissions and commissions as far administration was concerned.