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Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy’s claim that the Congress government in Karnataka would collapse after Lok Sabha polls, along the lines of the ‘Maharashtra model’, was brushed aside by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Monday.
Responding to media queries at Belagavi, Siddaramaiah said the BJP and the JD(S) were “under an illusion” about the Congress government falling in Karnataka. The two parties, he said, were floundering like fish out of water following their defeat in the Assembly polls held in May.
Speaking at an event at K R Pet, Mandya district, Sunday, Kumaraswamy contended that the state government was struggling to manage resources to fund development in the state. “This government will definitely collapse after the Lok Sabha polls,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, at a media briefing at Hassan, he had alleged that an influential Congress leader was lobbying with central BJP leaders to save himself from corruption charges. “Someone informed me that (a leader) is planning to jump ship with 50-60 MLAs,” he said, adding that the leader is pleading with BJP leaders to facilitate the switch.
Referring to the ‘Maharashtra Model’, the JD(S) leader said it was unclear which leader would emerge as in Maharashtra. “Considering the politics today, anything could happen,” he said.
The Maharashtra model was about the formation of the Eknath Shinde government in 2022. A group of Shiv Senal legislators under Shinde split from the Maha Vikas Agadi coalition and formed the government along with the BJP.
This is not the first time the ‘Maharashtra Model’ is being evoked after elections in Karnataka. In October, BJP MLA and former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had spearheaded the ‘Operation Lotus’ to topple the Karnataka government in 2019, said the state could see a BJP government being formed along the ‘Maharashtra model’.
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