Siddaramaiah Alleges BJP Offering Rs 50 Crore

  Preeti Sigh   4111   04 Feb, 2019 

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Former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Monday alleged BJP was offering Rs. 50 crore each to Congress MLAs as part of its bid to topple the JDS-Congress government in Karnataka, but asserted none of them would fall for it. Separately, two ministers in the HD Kumaraswamy cabinet alleged BJP was still making attempts to poach Congress and JDS MLAs while claiming that a few saffron party legislators were in touch with the coalition partners. Rejecting Mr Siddaramaiah's claim, BJP hit back saying the coalition government should focus on administration of the state instead of hurling charges. The claims by the ruling side came amid reports that disgruntled Congress MLAs might stay away from the coming budget session of the assembly thereby posing a threat to the eight-month old Mr Kumaraswamy government. Senior BJP leader R Ashoka had last week claimed that 20 to 25 disgruntled MLAs of the ruling alliance were out of the reach of their leaders. The saffron party on Sunday had said it was not averse to moving a no-confidence motion during the budget session commencing on February 6. Mr Siddaramaiah said: "They (BJP) are under some illusion of power. They are offering Rs. 50 crore (to Congress MLAs). They huddled their 104 MLAs in a seven-star hotel in Haryana for a week. "How much it will be if each of the 20 MLAs get Rs. 50 crore? It is Rs. 1,000 crore. From where they got so much of money?" he said while speaking to reporters at Koppal He alleged the BJP wants to 'buy' 20 Congress MLAs and said none would fall for it even if offered Rs. 100 crore. Rejecting the charge, BJP spokesperson and state general secretary N Ravi Kumar said his party was not trying to dislodge the government. We are not trying to pull down the government. Let them table the budget and run the government. We are playing the role of a constructive opposition," he told PTI.

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