Natural for us to add fuel to fire, says C T Ravi

There is dissidence within the Congress-JD(S) camp and “we will add fuel to the fire,” BJP general secretary C T Ravi said on Thursday, acknowledging the saffron party’s attempt to make the most of the disgruntlement in the coalition.

“You might be running the government due to simple math, but there is dissidence. Of course we will add fuel to that fire. That’s our politics. If your MLAs don’t respect you, don’t blame us,” Ravi, a former minister, told a news conference.

“Of course, we will flame the fire burning within the Congress and JD(S) because we (BJP) should rightly have had the opportunity to form the government. We aren’t here for charity.”

Ravi recounted past instances when Congress and JD(S) leaders engineered defections.

“I want to ask - in 2005-06 as JD(S) legislature party leader and deputy chief minister, Siddaramaiah joined the Congress. Was this an auction or purchase? When some JD(S) MLAs cross-voted in favour of the Congress, what rate had he given them? In 1994, when H D Deve Gowda was chief minister, seven members from the KCP were inducted into the JD(S). What was that? In 1999, seven JD(S) MLAs went to the Congress. Was that a wholesale deal or retail deal?” he said.

He recollected how, in 2010, dissident BJP MLAs were taken by B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan in a bus he drove.

“Kumaraswamy was the conductor and D K Shivakumar was traffic controller. Was that respectable politics? We’re doing what you did in the past. When you do it, it is politics, but when we do, it is despicable. Stop this hypocrisy.”