BANGALORE: Year 2012 could trigger a major political shake-up in the state with Congress’ ally at the Centre, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) headed by Maharashtra strongman Sharad Pawar, planning to engineer a split in the Congress and JD(S) in the next three months. The poaching of Karnataka MLAs is part of Pawar’s grand design to scale the Prime Minister’s seat after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Revealing the plan, NCP chief spokesperson and national general secretary Devi Prasad Tripathi confirmed that a section of MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) are in touch with them and a few rounds of talks have also been completed.
“Discussion are on. Nothing has been finalised. It will be premature and a breach of trust to name the individuals,” Tripathi said when asked to reveal the names. Tripathi neither denied nor confirmed, when asked whether Congress MLAs Malikayya Guttedar, Prakash Hukkeri, Rajashekhara Patil Humnabad, Baburao Chinchansur, Independent MLA Gulihatti Shekhar and B C Patil were in the scheme of things to join the NCP.
“All I can say is that everything will be finalised in the next three months. We expect a big exodus, may be around 30-40 MLAs, from the Congress and JD(S),” he said, adding that the party was keen to strengthen its base in every state ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
Meanwhile, sources said a few MLAs have conveyed to KPCC president G Parameshwara and Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah their decision to quit Congress in the coming days.
“Yes, we have informed our leaders and told them that there was no future in the Congress,” said one of the MLAs, who has made up his mind to embrace the NCP. When contacted, Parmeshwar flatly denied any such development, terming it as a “mere rumour”.
Another senior leader, on condition of anonymity, said that party hopping was common prior to elections. “Dozens of MLAs from the ruling BJP are knocking our doors, but we can’t declare it as it is too premature to speak,” he said.
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