Vijayendra claims Congress leaders are plotting to unseat Karnataka CM Shivakumar

Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Sunday claimed that a move was under way inside the Congress to remove Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, and tied it to the sting videos that have rattled the state’s ruling party.

“Several senior state Congress leaders have lost faith in Chief Minister D K Shivakumar,” Mr Vijayendra told reporters in Hubballi. He said “high-level meetings were underway within the Congress party to make Shivakumar step down”, and that senior Congress leaders would meet after the Legislative Council elections and might act on the chief minister’s post.

The sting videos

Mr Vijayendra said the recent sting operations had targeted ministers and Congress legislators, and that who had sponsored them, who they were aimed at and why would become clear in the coming days. He claimed the operation had “moved from the KPCC office to Vidhana Soudha”.

He also repeated his earlier prediction that former chief minister Siddaramaiah would have to step down, and accused the Congress of trying to humiliate him.

There was no response from the Congress or the chief minister’s office to the claims by Sunday evening.

Council polls and farmers

Mr Vijayendra said the BJP and the JD(S) were campaigning together and that NDA candidates would win all four Legislative Council seats in the polls on 23 October.

He accused the state government of passing the sugarcane growers’ problems on to the Centre, banks and sugar factories, and urged it to consider a State Advised Price, as he said Haryana and Uttar Pradesh do. He questioned whether ₹2,500 in drought relief was enough.

He also demanded an impartial probe into alleged irregularities and delays in Karnataka Public Service Commission recruitment, opposed any move to abolish the commission, and said irregularities from the BJP’s own years in power should be examined too. He asked how many of the roughly 2.5 lakh posts the Congress had promised had been filled.