BJP may try for President's rule in K'taka: Rayareddy

Former minister and Congress leader Basavaraj Rayareddy charged that the BJP was trying to impose the President's rule on Karnataka, after creating confusion by making a few Congress MLAs to tender resignation, and to go for mid-term elections later.

"The coalition government will not fall, as getting the majority is impossible for the BJP. The BJP high-command is also not willing for 'Operation Kamala' to topple the government, and to make B S Yeddyurappa the chief minister. Therefore, they are trying to create confusion by making some Congress MLAs to tender resignation, to project that horse-trading is going on and instability is there in the government," he said.

'Misuse of Art 356 likely'

"BJP may try to misuse Article 356 of the Constitution, to keep the Legislative Assembly in suspended animation for sometime. Later, they may go for mid-term elections, when elections would be held for Maharashtra Assembly also," Rayareddy doubted, saying that he got information about the possibility of such a plan, from credible sources in the BJP itself.

Some MLAs had earlier stated that they were offered upto Rs 40 crore by the BJP. Under that calculation, the BJP has to spend around Rs 600 crore to get required number of ruling MLAs resigned, and come to power. Instead, they are thinking about going for mid-term polls, he said.

Resignation by Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarakiholi would not be valid. This is just a game by the BJP, to create confusion, but it would not have any impact on the stability of the government, Rayareddy noted.

'Alliance brought loss'

Admitting that the Congress had to incur loss in Lok Sabha elections, due to its alliance with the JD(S), Rayareddy said, "Whether it is right or wrong, Congress made sacrifice and supported JD(S), to keep communal BJP away from power. Divorce is possible only when dissidence reaches its peak and when there is a valid reason".