The Congress on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to order an investigation into his party’s alleged efforts to buy out opposing MLAs to manage a majority in the newly-elected Karnataka Assembly.
The Congress party on Saturday had released audio clips in which Bharatiya Janata Party leaders were purportedly heard offering MLAs ministerial positions and huge sums of money for crossing over. BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa resigned as chief minister on Saturday before he was scheduled to face a trust vote on the third day of his government. The Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular), who formed an alliance after election results, have a majority.
“We hope the prime minister will order an investigation into the naked dance of corruption which his party MLAs were indulging in,” Congress spokesperson Jaiveer Shergill said on Sunday. “The prime minister should prove his commitment to fighting corruption by launching an investigation into those MLAs who openly called Congress and JD(S) MLAs and offered bribes with an intention to break the rock solid coalition.”
The Congress will work with its partners to form a coalition to make the “central government free from BJP” and free from hate politics, Shergill said. “The truth is in 2014, a slogan in India was ‘ghar ghar Modi’ [Modi in every house],” he said. “In 2019, the Congress will ensure it is ‘bye bye Modi’. Today, we are making friends and NDA [the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance] is making enemies.”
Shergill also criticised Modi for rising fuel prices and for not going to Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, after a flyover collapsed on Tuesday.
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