New Delhi: Congress hit out at BJP government after a video of B S Yediyurappa surfaced, showing him admitting that BJP President Amit Shah had planned and supervised the poaching of Congress-JDS MLAs and the subsequent collapse of the coalition government in the state.
Addressing a press conference, Congress General Secretary K C Venugopal said, "I think you are all aware of the latest video clipping of Karnataka Chief Minister Yediyurappa related to poaching of Congress and JD-S MLAs."
He said that the Congress kept on saying that under the leadership of the Prime Minister and Shah, BJP was misusing all the government agencies like CBI, ED, IT to poach the opposition MLAs and to sabotage the Opposition-led government.
"Now it is established beyond the doubt with the video evidence of the Chief Minister. He has said that Shah was behind the entire management of the poaching episode.
He (Yediyurappa) is telling that and is heard that Shah is managing their (Congress-JD-S MLAs) stay in Mumbai and he is managing the defector MLAs," Venugopal alleged.
The 15 rebel Congress-JD-S MLAs had quit from the Assembly in June and gone to Mumbai after that. Following the resignations by the MLAs, the then Karnataka Speaker disqualified the rebel MLAs.
Subsequently, the 14-month old Congress-JD-S government failed to prove majority in Karnataka in July this year and collapsed.
Accusing the BJP of misusing the Supreme Court, the Congress leader said, "Now there is a proof and it is shocking that Yediyurappa is saying that Supreme Court might give relief to the rebel MLAs and they can contest the election."
"We all know that matter is sub-judice and the case is reserved for judgment on November 4. It is a matter of serious concern that a Chief Minister is saying that the verdict is in favour of defector MLAs and they can contest the election," he said.
He also gave the previous examples of poaching MLAs and sabotaging the elected governments in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Uttarakhand, and Karnataka. In the video, Yediyurappa is heard asking the party workers to behave better with the 17 rebel MLAs who helped to bring down the Congress-JDS coalition government and reinstate the BJP.
Yediyurappa said the decision of the 17 JD-S and Congress MLAs to resign was taken by the central leadership of the BJP and that the party workers should honour the "sacrifice" of the rebel MLAs.
