Day After Yeddyurappa-Amit Shah Meeting, BJP Says Not Interested in 'Toppling' Kumaraswamy Govt

Bengaluru: A day after Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa's meeting with party president Amit Shah in Ahmedabad, party insiders maintain that the national leadership is not interested in “toppling" the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka at this juncture.

Yeddyurappa had flown to Ahmedabad to meet Shah on Monday. Accompanied by senior BJP MLA Basavaraja Bommai, he had an hour-long talk with Shah.

The meeting had set off speculations that the BJP is trying to “unseat" Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to install Yeddyurappa as the CM.

According to BJP insiders, at least 20 disgruntled Congress and JD(S) MLAs are in constant touch with their party leaders and some state leaders have reportedly advised the national leadership to “exploit" the situation.

However, the national leadership has cautioned them against any such hasty move and advised Yeddyurappa to wait for the government to collapse “on its own".

"Since we need 16 MLAs to defect to our side to prove majority, the high command is not interested in it. Secondly, it may work against us in the Lok Sabha elections next year. We are hoping that the JD(S)-Congress government will collapse on its own because of many contradictions," said a senior BJP leader from Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa briefed Shah about the current political situation in Karnataka and told him that former chief minister Siddaramaiah's politics may cost the party its government, claims a close confidante of Yeddyurappa.

Siddaramaiah, who is also the chairman of the JD(S)-Congress coordination committee, has openly expressed his opposition to Kumaraswamy's budget and his farm loan waiver proposal.

An angry Kumaraswamy hit back at him, saying he is not at the mercy of anybody and the CM's chair is not “alms".

Interestingly, the BJP has focussed more on the Congress and refrained from talking much about the JD(S), triggering speculation that it is trying to keep the option of going with the JD(S) open.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also met Kumaraswamy twice in the last one month.

According to BJP sources, a JD(S) and BJP alliance can win 25 out of total 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka and they want the government to collapse on its own over sharing of seats between closer to general elections.