Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath has been given the charge of ensuring that the shaky Congress-Janata Dal Secular government in Karnataka does not come apart at the seams and he will be in the state all of Sunday in a bid to control the existing political turmoil here.
Kamal Nath reached Karnataka late Saturday night and has a packed schedule for Sunday when he will meet with Congress MLAs here. He has been reportedly tasked to ensure that these MLAs do not break away from the party and either join political rivals or pledge their support elsewhere. A seasoned politician, Kamal Nath’s vast experience is being backed by Congress which faces an existential crisis in most parts of the country and especially in Karnataka where it had stitched together a post-poll alliance with the JDS.
The ground situation remains tense and the future of the HD Kumaraswamy-led government here remains in limbo. Several Congress and JDS MLAs have resigned in the past weeks which have put a big question mark on the future of the Karnataka government. Their resignations, however, are yet to be accepted by the Speaker.
Congress has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party has launched ‘ Operation Kamala’ and is trying to poach its MLAs, a charge vehemently denied by the BJP. Nonetheless, Congress wants to leave nothing to chance and Kamal Nath becomes one of many senior party leaders to have visited Karnataka in recent days. This comes just a day after Congress received some good news with the party’s rebel MLA MTB Nagraj withdrawing his resignation after a series of meetings with Kumaraswamy and former CM Siddaramaiah.
Prasanta Patnaik