Former Chief Minister and Head of the Coordination Committee for the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, Siddaramaiah, has termed ‘Operation Lotus’ as a ‘disease’ of democracy and BJP as the ‘root cause’ for the disease.
He told presspersons in Hubballi on Thursday that it was former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa who started ‘Operation Kamala’ which did not exist before. “The usage came to prevalence when Mr. Yeddyurappa was the Chief Minister”, he said.
Maintaining that they knew from the beginning itself that Operation Lotus would fail, he said when a person or a party lacked commitment towards democracy, then such developments would happen. He said the BJP did not have faith in democracy. “Otherwise they would be sitting in the opposition and discharging the duties of an opposition party respecting the mandate given by the people. They don’t have faith in their MLAs and that’s why they have herded them in a resort in Haryana. It is disgraceful and filthy”, he said.
To a query, Mr. Siddaramaiah clarified that they had not promised ministership to any of the disgruntled MLAs of the party and maintained that there was no dissent.
On the allegations by BJP leaders that it was Mr. Siddaramaiah who was actually creating problems for the coalition and then posing as troubleshooter, Mr. Siddaramaiah termed it all foolishness. “Did I ask the BJP and Mr. Yeddyurappa to take their MLAs to a resort in Haryana”, he asked.
On Friday’s legislative party meeting and the action to be taken against MLAs who fail to attend it, Mr. Siddaramaiah exuded confidence that all MLAs would participate in the meeting.
