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 the Congress was in power, whether in Madhya Pradesh or Karnataka, the BJP could not accept an opposition government, and he accused it of taking Congress MLAs to Mumbai and keeping them there.

Rajnath Singh replied that his party had not set off the resignations. Rahul Gandhi, he said, began the trend by quitting as Congress president and had asked his own colleagues to do the same, after which many senior Congress leaders stepped down. Singh said the BJP had never tried to win over an MLA or MP from another party, because it regarded the integrity of parliamentary democracy as paramount.

The numbers in Karnataka

The Congress-JD(S) government, in power for 13 months, was close to collapse after 14 MLAs resigned, including Congress MLA Anand Singh, who quit on July 1. If the resignations are accepted, the coalition’s strength would fall to 105, equal to the BJP’s, and each side would need one more MLA to reach the halfway mark of 106. To limit the damage, Congress and JD(S) ministers resigned to make room in the cabinet for unhappy MLAs.

Reactions in the State

Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleged that central agencies were being misused to topple the government, said the BJP’s 105 MLAs fell short of a majority, and added that ministers had stepped down voluntarily.

BJP State president and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa said his party was watching developments and would not rule out forming a government. He rejected the idea of a mid-term poll, saying it had been only 13 months since the assembly election: “We will not allow elections to happen.”

What happened next

The Kumaraswamy-led coalition, formed on 23 May 2018, fell in July 2019, and B. S. Yeddyurappa returned as Chief Minister.

See also: Indian National Congress | Bharatiya Janata Party | Election news

Originally published on 8 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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