Congress claims vindication post MLA's 'BJP offered me cash' charge, demands ACB probe

After Kagwad MLA Shrimant Patil claimed that he was offered money to switch allegiance to BJP, Karnataka Congress president DK Shivakumar congratulated him. The opposition has often accused BJP of orchestrating 'Operation Kamala' in 2019 where BJP allegedly engineered the defection of 17 MLAs from the JD(S) and Congress camp leading to the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led government. Winning the 2018 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket, he was one of the 17 legislators who eventually joined BJP and later won the Kagwad by-election.

Speaking to the media in Belagavi on September 11, Shrimant Patil alleged, “They (BJP) asked me how much money I wanted. But I declined the offer and asked them to give suitable position after government formation. I have come to BJP without taking any money". He added, "Now, they have dropped me from the new cabinet. However, I am confident of getting a cabinet berth in the coming days".

Reacting to this, Shivakumar asserted that Patil had spoken the truth. Claiming that the saffron party tried to lure the Kagwad MLA as a part of 'Operation Kamala', he demanded a probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. In the BS Yediyurappa-led Cabinet, Patil served as the Minority Welfare and Handlooms & Textiles Minister from 2020 to 2021.

What is 'Operation Kamala'?

While BJP emerged as the single-largest party with 104 seats in the 2018 Karnataka Assembly election, Yediyurappa had to resign merely two days after taking oath as the CM owing to his party's inability to muster a majority in the state Assembly. Kumaraswamy was sworn In as the CM on May 23, 2018, after JD(S) and Congress stitched a post-poll alliance. The infighting within the alliance intensified after BJP swept Karnataka in the 2019 General Election by winning 25 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats. The crisis for the coalition government commenced on July 6, 2019, when 12 legislators submitted their resignations to the Karnataka Speaker's office.

Soon, the number of rebel MLAs swelled to 17 which led to Governor Vajubhai Vala asking the government to prove its majority on the floor of the House. As a three-judge Supreme Court bench refused to compel the rebel MLAs to attend the Assembly proceedings, the JD(S)-Congress government lost the trust vote on July 23, 2019. On December 5, 2020, Kumaraswamy contended that he fell into a trap by agreeing to form the government with Congress after the 2018 Karnataka poll verdict and accused Congress' Siddaramaiah of conspiring against him.