Outgoing chief minister H D Kumaraswamy predicted that the new BJP government will be fraught with instability, after which the only way out would be fresh elections.
Kumaraswamy, in his reply to the confidence motion, said the BJP will face backlash from within soon after incoming chief minister B S Yeddyurappa would form his Cabinet.
“So, then what happens,” Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar asked. “We will have to go for fresh elections,” Kumaraswamy said.
BJP leaders, too, are wary that the new government will, six months down the line, find itself in the same situation the Congress-JD(S) coalition was during the crisis.
Kumaraswamy elaborated his warning to the BJP by seeking to expose the rebel MLAs, especially those from the JD(S) - H Vishwanath, K Gopalaiah and K C Narayana Gowda.
“I’m surprised with Vishwanath. Do we call him a statesman? He says the Speaker was encouraging the delay in the confidence motion proceedings, and that the state politics was filled with demons.”
Enraged, Kumar lambasted Vishwanath for casting aspersions on him.
“He’s an MLA since 1978, he was a Lok Sabha member, he was a minister and JD(S) state president. Yet, he couldn’t write his resignation letter properly. And he’s giving me a certificate?”
Kumaraswamy said Gopalaiah wanted “protection” in a family murder case. “How can I give him protection? I’ve never misused my power,” Kumaraswamy said. Hitting out at Gowda, the outgoing chief minister said: “He has accused me of not giving him funds to even drill a bore well. In fact, I was against giving him the ticket in 2013. In 2018, I went against my family to field him again.”
Refuting the rebels’ claim that the coalition government had neglected development, Kumaraswamy gave out allocations that had been made to their constituencies. “Ramesh Jarkiholi got Rs 262 crore, Mahesh Kumathalli Rs 157 crore, Vishwanath Rs 304 crore, Anand Singh Rs 179 crore, K Sudhakar Rs 136 crore, B C Patil Rs 147 crore, R Shankar Rs 113 crore, H Nagesh Rs 303 crore, Pratapgouda Patil Rs 517 crore, Shivaram Hebbar Rs 413 crore, M T B Nagaraj Rs 132 crore, S T Somashekhar Rs 115 crore,” he said. “Despite this, why did they leave?”
Listening to all this, the Speaker also warned the BJP. “Be careful,” he said, alluding to the possibility of the MLAs rebelling again.
Kumaraswamy hailed his crop loan waiver scheme, implementation of the Israeli farming techniques and zero-budget farming besides allocation for road works and Bengaluru infrastructure, among other achievements.
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