Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy’s statement that JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, when he was Chief Minister, was responsible for phone tapping of Vokkaliga seer Nirmalananda Swami, head of Adichunchanagiri mutt, has added more fuel to the war of words between the Congress and the BJP-JD(S) alliance partners.
Sparks have been flying between the two ever since 14 contestants of the BJP-JD(S) alliance visited the seer with prominent Vokkaliga leaders. Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar responded to it by stating that it was the BJP that had brought down the “Vokkaliga government”, referring to the Congress-JD(S) government led by Mr. Kumaraswamy that was brought down by engineered defections to the BJP in 2019.
The BJP shot back by saying that the Congress too was part of the government back then and the Home Minister was a Congress leader. Mr. Shivakumar, responding to Mr. Cheluvarayaswamy’s statement, said: “There is proof about that, but I do not wish to talk about it now.”