Karnataka Water Resource minister DK Shivakumar Sunday said the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ to topple the state’s coalition government was for real, alleging that three Congress MLAs were camping at a hotel in Mumbai in the “company of some BJP leaders”.
“Horse trading is going on in the state. Three of our MLAs are in Mumbai in a hotel with some BJP MLAs and leaders. We are aware of what has transpired there and how much has been offered to them,” he said.
Shivakumar, who had earned the reputation of being a “trouble-shooter” in the Congress for bailing out the party from many crises in the past, accused Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of being “lenient” towards the BJP.