BSY asks MLAs not to fall prey to poaching

BJP state chief B S Yeddyurappa, in the closed-door meetings here on Wednesday, is said to have urged the party legislators not to fall trap to JD(S)-Congress enticement, and quit.

The BJP MLAs, who had been put up in a luxury hotel here, assured him that they would abide by the decision taken by the party.

The legislators said this when Yeddyurappa pointed out to them that the Congress and JD(S) were trying to approach BJP MLAs by promising money and ministerial berth.

While refusing to disclose his plan, Yeddyurappa told the legislators that they might have to stay in the hotel for two more days.

Yeddyurappa also told the MLAs that he would go to Tumakuru to enquire about the well-being of Siddaganga seer Shivakumara Swami.

While BJP kept its flock together in the hotel, around 20 Youth Congress workers, led by party’s Haryana Pradesh Congress general secretary Pradeep Singh, demonstrated outside the hotel shouting slogans against the NDA government.

Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao claimed that the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka has lost the majority and that the ruling coalition is on the verge of “collapse” due to its “internal contradictions.”

A senior BJP national leader, who declined to be named, said the party would “wait and watch” on how the differences within the alliance play out before taking a call on its next move.

“Let the state unit decide and then we will deliberate over it,” he said when asked if the BJP is looking to make a push for stalling its government in the southern state.