New Delhi: Shrimant Patil, one of the MLAs who defected from the JD(S)-Congress to the BJP in 2019, claimed on Saturday that he was offered money to shift allegiances, an allegation that suggests that money power and inducements were used to topple the government.
Patil was until recently the minority welfare minister of Karnataka. According to The News Minute, the Kagwad MLA said he declined the “offer of money and demanded that I should be given a good position in the BJP-led government so that I can do social service”.
“It was true that I was given an offer of money. I did not take the money and asked for a good portfolio. Accordingly, I was given a cabinet berth. Now, they (BJP) have dropped me from the new Cabinet. However, I have the confidence of getting a cabinet berth in the coming days,” he said, according to the website.
“Without a single penny, I’ve joined [the] BJP. BJP [leaders] used to ask me how much money I want. Even then I didn’t take a single paisa,” the former Congress leader said, according to India Today.
Patil later issued a ‘clarification’ saying, “They didn’t offer me money. It was the wrong use of words. No one tried to lure me. I voluntarily came to BJP because of my principles.”
Patil said he had discussed the possibility of reinstating him in the cabinet with senior BJP leaders, and the Maratha community has also pitched in for him. “The senior BJP leaders have assured me that I will be accommodated in the cabinet,” he said.
In 2019, the JD(S)-Congress alliance government was toppled by the defection of 16 MLAs to the BJP. While there were allegations of horsetrading – that the MLAs were lured by offers of ministerial posts and/or money, the BJP had denied them. However, these allegations were more or less confirmed by B.S. Yediyurappa himself, after taking oath as chief minister of Karnataka. He told the defecting MLAs that their ‘sacrifice’ would be rewarded and that he and the party will “keep up the promise made to you word to word and won’t betray you”.
Many of the defectors were made ministers in the Yediyurappa government.
In July this year, The Wire had revealed that numbers of key JD(S)-Congress functionaries – including deputy chief minister G. Parameshwara and the personal secretaries of then chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and former chief minister Siddaramaiah – were selected as potential targets of surveillance through the Pegasus spyware by an Indian client of the NSO Group. They were selected as potential targets around the same time that the government was toppled, raising concerning questions.
Karnataka Congress president D.K. Shivakumar has called for a probe into the claims made by Patil. In a tweet, he said, “Sri Shrimant Patil has spoken the truth. The BJP had indeed attempted to lure Sri Shrimant Patil, a former minister using Operation Kamala. I congratulate him for speaking up on this matter. The ACB must immediately investigate this and take action against those who subvert.”
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Brijesh Kalappa told The News Minute that Patil’s allegations only confirm what was already known to many. “There is an audio tape of Yediyurappa offering money to a JD(S) MLA’s son. This is a well-known fact. It’s only that the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation), I-T (Income Tax) Department and ED (Enforcement Directorate) don’t care because it was the BJP doing this. We thank Shrimant Patil for publicly accepting this fact. We hope that the CBI, I-T and ED open their eyes and ears at least now,” he said.