Kamala vs Hasta: Santosh, Cong spar over MLA poaching

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: BJP general secretary BL Santosh’s remark that he was in touch with 40 to 45 Congress legislators and could execute ‘Operation Kamala’ in a day was met with derision by the ruling party on Friday.

Santosh made the comments in the backdrop of rumours that Congress was trying to poach sitting BJP MLAs like ST Somashekar, Shivaram Hebbar, and MP Renukacharya, among others to enlist them as potential candidates for the Lok Sabha elections.

The saffron party general secretary sought to impress upon Congress that their lawmakers were equally vulnerable to poaching. The Karnataka Congress official handle on the microblogging site (previously Twitter) called the declaration “the joke of the century” in response.

“Many BJP MLAs had been absent from the meeting called to mock Yediyurappa. BL Santosh, who has not been able to establish contact with his own MLAs, claiming he is in touch with Congress MLAs is the joke of the century. Instead of peddling lies, let Santosh build trust and connect with his own party MLAs,” the handle posted.

Congress claimed that BJP MLAs such as former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, CT Ravi, ST Somashekar, Shivaram Hebbar, and MP Renukacharya had been absent from the meeting, apart from other prominent party leaders such as Yediyurappa and V Somanna.

Earlier, Santosh had said that he was in touch with dozens of Congress MLAs but qualified the statement with “we don’t want to do that (poaching) now. We are not trying to form a government now.”