2 Down, More to Follow? After Congress MLAs Quit, Rumour Mills Abuzz as Ex-JD(S) Chief Meets BJP MPs

Bengaluru: Amid reports of resignations by two Congress MLAs, the meeting of former JD(S) state president H Vishwanath with a few BJP MPs set off tongues wagging on whether the JD(S) was set to lose one MLA to the saffron party too.

Vishwanath met Bharatiya Janata Party MP BY Raghavendra — son of BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa — on Wednesday, apart from the MP from Tumkur district GS Basavaraj at Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi. He also made time to meet more BJP leaders in Delhi while the Lok Sabha session is on.

“I did not meet anyone, they came to meet me. And just because I met BJP leaders doesn’t mean I am joining the BJP. No one has invited me to join the BJP. If I have to quit the JD(S), I will inform everybody before I do," he told newspersons who questioned him in Delhi.

Vishwanath, a former Congressman and ex-minister in the SM Krishna-led Congress government 20 years ago, is now an MLA from the JD(S). He fell out with the Congress a few years ago and does not see eye-to-eye with former chief minister Siddaramaiah, the man who the Congress considers one of its key decision-makers.

While insisting that he was still with the JD(S), Vishwanath took potshots at Siddaramaiah and chief minister HD Kumaraswamy for bringing in total political anarchy in the state. “This coalition experiment has failed totally. There is only confusion in it, and the coalition government has become a laughing stock at the national level. The chairperson of the coordination committee (Siddaramaiah) and the CM are to be blamed for it,” Vishwanath told News18.

He said neither the Congress nor the JDS was serious about keeping the coalition going and hence, no one was making any attempts to sort out issues raised by disgruntled MLAs. “There are many waiting to pull the government down, and there are many willing to fall,” he said cryptically, adding that no one was behaving responsibly in the coalition.