BJP does not know anything other than ‘Operation’ to come to power: CM Siddaramaiah

PTI, Feb 2, 2024, 8:29 PM IST

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the BJP does not know anything other than ‘Operation’ to come to power.

Taking a dig at former chief minister Jagadish Shettar and BJP state president B Y Vijayendra’s statements that many Congress leaders will join the saffron party, the Chief Minister alleged the BJP knows how to buy MLAs by paying them money.

”They (BJP) don’t know anything other than ‘Operation’. You know the meaning of Operation? It means buying people by paying them money. They cannot come to power by winning the trust of voters. They just pay money (to the public representatives) and buy them,” Siddaramaiah said.

Shettar recently returned to the BJP after spending less than a year in the Congress. The staunch RSS man had joined the Congress party when the BJP denied him a ticket in the Assembly elections last year.

The Chief Minister alleged that the BJP came to power twice in the past through ‘Operation Lotus’ when B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai were the chief ministers.

According to him, the BJP in Karnataka has been coming to power through ‘Operation’ since 2008.

”When did the BJP get a full majority in the state? Did they ever win with absolute majority, be it in 2008, 2013 or 2018? Never. The Congress, on the other hand, won with a majority in 2013 and 2023. The Congress comes to power with people’s mandate. They (BJP) come to power through ‘Operation’,” the Chief Minister alleged.