Karnataka CM offering money, ministerial posts to BJP MLAs: Yeddyurappa

Bengaluru: BJP state unit chief and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has alleged that Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was indulging in horse-trading by offering money and ministerial posts to his MLAs.

"We are not indulging in any poaching. It is Chief Minister Kumaraswamy who is indulging in horse-trading. He himself is offering money and ministerial posts to our MLAs," Yeddyurappa said here on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday.

BJP MLAs from Karnataka who have camped themselves in Gurgaon since Monday evening said that they were here to make strategies for the coming Lok Sabha polls and had not run away fearing poaching by the ruling Congress-JD(S) alliance.

The charges of horse-trading were triggered after three Karnataka Congress MLAs visited Mumbai earlier on Monday, reportedly along with some BJP MLAs. This was followed by the Congress' allegation that the BJP was trying to poach the ruling party's MLAs to destabilise the JD(S)-Congress alliance government in Karnataka.

Yeddyurappa has refuted these charges, saying that his party had nothing to do with the three Congress lawmakers' Mumbai visit, and accused the Congress-JD(S) alliance of making a poaching bid.

Chief Minister Kumaraswamy has also accused Yeddyurappa of fabricating stories, adding that there was no need for the Congress-JD(S) alliance to poach on any party's lawmakers.