According to senior Congress leader and former minister M. B. Patil, the BJP’s purported “Operation Kamala” of stealing MLAs after the election will not be effective this time. The Congress will take power on its own with 130-odd seats out of 224 in the Karnataka assembly elections. Speaking to the media, Patil, also the campaign committee chairman, denied “internal fight” in the Congress and defended the party leaders holding aspirations to become chief minister.
He also said he has neither been sidelined nor losing his importance in the party after Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi, the tall Lingayat leaders from BJP, joined the Congress.
Patil is contesting from Babaleshwar, one of the eight assembly constituencies in Vijayapura district.
“If they carry out ‘Operation Kamala’ this time, it will not be successful.
The BJP and JD(S) together will not have enough numbers to form the government.
Taking the support of JD(S) will not arise for Congress as it will get 130-odd seats,” he said.
BJP has come to power in Karnataka not by majority numbers.
In 2018, the BJP had projected tall Lingayat leader B S Yediyurappa as its CM candidate but the saffron party at that time could not even win 115 seats and managed only 105, he recalled.
“Now minus Yediyurappa, there is no question of BJP coming to power on its own. It came to power by buying our 17 MLAs through ‘Operation Kamala