Slamming his erstwhile alliance-partner Congress, which has launched a nation-wide “Save Democracy” campaign against BJP’s alleged moves to lure legislators resulting in fall of democratically-elected governments, former Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday questioned Congress’s moral ground in criticising the saffron party. He said that Congress is as guilty of dividing legislators of like-minded parties and indulging in horse-trading.
“Hasn’t Congress lured BSP MLAs to form government in Rajasthan? Is that not buyout?” the former Chief Minister asked in a statement released to the media.
Accusing Congress of being “an expert in dividing political parties and purchasing MLAs” he said: “In fact, the term ‘horse-trading’ in politics came to be used because of Congress.”
Mr. Kumaraswamy said: “Hasn’t Congress, which is making big noise about purchase of MLAs, divided JD(S) in the past? Is it not a fact that for the sake of one Rajya Sabha seat, the Congress government in Karnataka purchased eight JD(S) MLAs at one time? When S.M. Krishna was the Chief Minister, didn’t Congress buy our MLAs? Didn’t the Congress conspire to form a government after the 2018 Assembly polls by buying our MLAs? Does Congress have the moral courage to answer these questions?” He further said that in 2004, the Congress tried to divide the JD(S), and claimed that to avoid the party being “hijacked” by the Congress, he had to end the Congress-JD (S) coalition.
Mr. Kumaraswamy’s statement comes just a month after Congress supported his father and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda in Rajya Sabha elections in which JD(S) did not have the required numbers to win independently. The former Chief Minister has been very critical of Congress in the recent weeks.
