Siddaramaiah, not Operation Lotus, will bring down government: Ashoka

BENGALURU: Senior BJP leader and party election campaign coordinator R Ashoka on Monday sad the JDSCongress coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy would crumble because of Congress leader Siddaramaiah’s political machinations and not due to Operation Kamala (poaching of coalition MLAs).


“Siddaramaiah has been creating hurdles for the coalition government while fingers are being pointed at the BJP,” Ashoka said during a media interaction organised by the Press Club here.

“The alliance is limited to senior political leaders such as Kumaraswamy, HD Revanna, G Parameshwara and DK Shivakumar, and it has not been accepted by lower-rung leaders of both parties. This is why we say this government fall on its own soon after the parliamentary elections,” he said.

Refuting allegations that the BJP was trying to bring down the Kumaraswamy government by poaching Congress MLAs, Ashoka said: “Those working towards this are from within the Congress.”

“In fact, a few MLAs have quit the Congress because of infighting in the party. This is happening because everything is not fine in the party,” Ashoka added.

Referring to the BJP state president post, which is expected to fall vacant after the

Lok Sabha polls

, the former deputy chief minister threw his hat in the ring.

“The state president was supposed to be changed in December. It was postponed because of the Lok Sabha polls. I am ready to take up the responsibility. I am not a sanyasi to refuse the post,” Ashoka said.

However, he maintained that it would be up to the party high command to take a call on the issue.