The political crisis in Karnataka spilled into the Lok Sabha, where Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury accused the BJP of engineering defections of his party’s MLAs through a “pre-determined, well calculated design”. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh hit back, saying the wave of resignations had been started by Rahul Gandhi. Exchange in Parliament Chowdhury, the Congress leader in the Lower House, likened the alleged defections to theft and said that, despite claiming strength from its 303 MPs, the BJP’s hunger for power had not been satisfied. He said that wherever theRead More

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (PSP) president Shivpal Yadav has said he is open to an alliance with the Samajwadi Party if its president, his nephew Akhilesh Yadav, reaches out. Speaking to reporters in Firozabad on Sunday, he said: “We will not be going for any kind of merger with any party.” Talk of a reunion Speculation about the estranged uncle and nephew coming back together grew after the two were seen together at Mulayam Singh Yadav’s residence recently. Shivpal said that while a merger was ruled out, an approach from AkhileshRead More

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will make a day-long visit to Amethi in Uttar Pradesh on July 10, his first trip there since losing the Lok Sabha seat to the BJP’s Smriti Irani. His sister, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi, was likely to go with him. Purpose of the visit Gandhi is expected to meet party workers to understand why the Congress lost the family’s traditional seat by about 55 thousand votes. At a key meeting of the Congress Seva Dal in Lucknow on Monday, leaders also stressed the needRead More

Veteran Congress leader and former Union Minister Mallikarjun Kharge accused the BJP’s central leadership of working to bring down the JD(S)-Congress government in Karnataka, a day after 12 MLAs of the ruling alliance handed in their resignation letters. He was speaking to reporters in Bengaluru on July 7. Kharge’s allegations Kharge said the BJP was trying to split the coalition by moving MLAs to Mumbai. On July 6, in the evening, a group of the MLAs who had quit were flown out of Bengaluru’s HAL airport to Mumbai, where theyRead More

Karnataka Forest Minister Satish Jarkiholi warned in Belagavi on July 6 that the ruling coalition would respond in kind if the BJP lured away its legislators. “We know how to save our government. If our MLA s are poached, we will poach theirs,” he told reporters. Coalition’s warning Jarkiholi was asked whether the Congress would launch its own operation to counter what is called the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’. He said both the Congress and the JD(S) would do so, and that the Congress had already put a team together forRead More