Poaching: Siddaramaiah, BJP trade barbs on Twitter

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, claimed that the BJP had offered “100 times more money” to Congress legislators to lure them.

In a tweet, the former chief minister reiterated that the Congress-JD(S) coalition was stable and not a single Congress legislator had gone to Mumbai, as was intensely speculated in political circles.

“Our government is stable, none of the Congress MLAs have gone to Mumbai. BJP is trying to lure our MLAs by offering 100 times more money than what (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi promised to deposit in everyone's account,” Siddaramaiah tweeted late Thursday night.

The reference to Modi’s promise in the tweet, is Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s repeated attack on the PM for not depositing Rs 15 lakh in the bank accounts of every Indian citizen, a poll promise the Congress says Modi had made back in 2014.

Apparently, Siddaramaiah personally reached out every MLA whose name figured in media reports, as going to Mumbai or Pune, to make sure none jumped ship. “Our MLAs have shared all the details with the party,” he added in the tweet. Siddaramaiah also chairs the Coalition Coordination and Monitoring Committee, whose mandate is to keep the alliance partners in sync.

Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy claimed he was aware of the BJP’s moves to destabilise the government. BJP leaders had approached JD(S) MLA Suresh Gowda (Nagamangala) and Congress MLA Shivalli Channabasappa Satyappa (Kundagol) on Wednesday night, claiming they had successfully lured 18 other MLAs.

The fear that the BJP was trying to wrest the government from the Congress-JD(S) combine has, according to sources, kept the alliance partners on toes. This comes in fresh, after the government appeared to have survived its first major crisis posed by the Congress’ Jarkiholi brothers, who had threatened to raise a banner of revolt as part of their turf war with Water Resource Minister D K Shivakumar.

Wary of the disgruntled factions, the Congress has postponed expanding Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet until after the Legislative Council bypolls on October 4. The party, it is said, feared cross-voting, if the Cabinet was expanded before the bypolls.