Amid Karnataka Political Crisis, Rahul Gandhi Accuses BJP of Using Money Power to Topple State Govts

Ahmedabad: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Friday claimed that the BJP uses "money power" and "intimidation" to topple governments and accused the saffron party of doing the same in Karnataka.

Sixteen MLAs including 13 from the Congress, have resigned and two Independents have withdrawn support to the 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the southern state.

"BJP uses money power or threat to topple governments wherever it can. You saw this first in Goa, in the Northeast, and now are trying to do the same in Karnataka. It is their way of functioning. They have money, power, and they use it. This is the reality," Gandhi told reporters here.

"The Congress is fighting for truth because the truth makes Congress stronger," he said in reply to a question on what his party would do now.

The former Congress president was here to appear before a metropolitan court in a defamation case filed by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank in which BJP chief Amit Shah is one of the directors.

Gandhi pleaded not guilty and got bail in the case.

Reacting to defamation cases filed against him in different parts of the country, Gandhi said, "There is an attempt to suppress, threaten, but this does not matter to me. I do not get scared.

I will stand and continue to fight. This is a fight for the Constitution, the country's future. Fight against corruption, against atrocity. This will go on."