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 they were lodged in a five-star hotel. “How it is possible to arrange a special flight to Mumbai without the support of the BJP’s Central leaders,” he asked.

He alleged that BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, were trying to weaken State governments run by other parties, and said the party had also tried to unsettle the government in West Bengal. He claimed the BJP had engineered defections in some 13 to 14 States, naming West Bengal, Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Bihar and Jharkhand, and had been trying to topple the H.D. Kumaraswamy government ever since it was formed the previous year.

According to Kharge, the Congress MLAs who quit gave several reasons, including a lack of development works in their constituencies.

A rebel’s complaint

Congress MLA Muniratna, one of those who resigned, put the blame on PWD Minister H.D. Revanna of the JD(S). He said the Kumaraswamy government’s neglect of Bengaluru’s development and infrastructure was the main reason the city’s Congress MLAs had quit.

What happened next

The Kumaraswamy government, which took office on 23 May 2018 with Congress support, fell in July 2019, and B. S. Yeddyurappa returned as Chief Minister. Kharge was elected Congress president in October 2022.

See also: Indian National Congress | Janata Dal (Secular) | Political leaders

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

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