BJP using ED pressure to buy' MLAs, alleges JD(S)' Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: JD(S) chief H D Kumaraswamy has told media that a Congress MLA is being pressured to switch sides to the BJP with the bogey of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case that is going on against him.

Kumaraswamy said the Congress MLA in question – Anand Singh – has told a colleague that “they are using the ED. I have a case in ED and they are going to screw me”. “I am sorry I have to protect my interest,” Singh is said to have told his Congress colleague, Kumaraswamy said.

Singh is missing from all MLAs meet since Wednesday, Kumaraswamy told the media.

Anand Singh has been charged with illegally transporting iron ore. He was arrested in 2013 and released on bail two years later.

He was a BJP MP and also a minister in the last government before he joined the Congress in January. He is known to be close to the Reddy borhters and their aide Sriramulu.

Kumaraswamy, who is the chief ministerial candidate of the post-poll Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka, alleged the Narendra Modi government was misusing institutions. “I know they are threatening MLAs, looking to purchase them. Our plan is to safeguard our MLAs. People should be made aware of what is going on. BJP does not have the numbers, yet the Governor has invited them to form government. The governor has misused his office,” he said.

Kumaraswamy said he has requested his father, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda to rally support from other regional parties on how the “BJP is destroying all democratic practices in the country”. “We have to come together to protect the interests of the country,” he said.

Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala had invited state BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa to form the government and prove his majority on the floor within 15 days. BJP has emerged the single-largest party in the Assembly elections with 104 seats but is 8 short of a simple majority of 112. 

As soon as the results were clear, the Congress (78 seats) and the JD(S) with 38 seats came together to form a post-poll alliance and staked claim on the government with the adequate numbers.

After Governor Vala invited Yeddyurappa instead to form government, the Congress moved the Supreme Court on Wednesday night. 

The Supreme Court, in an unprecedented overnight hearing, did not stop Yeddyurappa from forming the government. Yeddyurappa was sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister on Thursday morning.