BJP Claims 25 Congress MLAs Ready to Defect; CM Shivakumar Dares Them to Act

Karnataka's political temperature spiked on Monday when the state BJP president made a bold prediction about the ruling Congress party's stability. BY Vijayendra declared that 25 Congress legislators—a number that would include sitting Cabinet ministers—stood ready to defect to the BJP if elections were called tomorrow. He framed the claim not as active recruitment but as a reflection of shifting sentiment across the state, suggesting the ground had already moved beneath the Congress government's feet.

Chief Minister DK Shivakumar's response was immediate and dismissive. Rather than engage with Vijayendra's assertion on its merits, Shivakumar turned the challenge back on him, essentially calling his bluff. If the BJP president was so confident about these 25 legislators, Shivakumar said, he should stop talking and start inducting them into the party. The sarcasm was sharp: don't waste time making claims, he told Vijayendra, just do it.

The exchange sits atop a deeper layer of accusation and counter-accusation roiling Karnataka politics. Shivakumar used the moment to remind reporters of recent cross-voting in Rajya Sabha elections, where he alleged that BJP and JDS leaders—including Vijayendra and Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy—had been unable to account for their own party members voting against them. Those votes, Shivakumar suggested, had actually gone to Congress. The implication was clear: if the opposition couldn't control its own ranks, why should anyone believe its claims about poaching Congress legislators?

But beneath the theatrical back-and-forth lies a more serious allegation that has begun circulating in Karnataka political circles. Shivakumar has warned his Cabinet colleagues about sting operations—covert recordings designed to trap them into compromising statements or actions. He has suggested he knows who is behind such efforts and who is financing the private agents conducting them. The CM has not named names publicly, instead saying that "time will answer" when pressed for details.

Vijayendra addressed the sting operation allegations obliquely, suggesting that Congress leaders themselves had resorted to such tactics to consolidate power. He characterized the practice as a sign of political decay, claiming that Karnataka's political culture had never sunk to such depths. He promised that "everything will come out in the coming days" and that those responsible would face consequences, though he offered no specifics about what those consequences might be or who would impose them.

Meanwhile, HD Kumaraswamy, the JDS leader and Union Minister, added his own pressure on Monday, questioning why Shivakumar's government had not ordered an investigation into the alleged sting operations. Kumaraswamy's question carried an implicit accusation: if the CM truly believed such operations were underway, why was he waiting rather than acting? Shivakumar's earlier statement that "time will answer" appeared to frustrate the opposition, which seemed to interpret it as evasion.

The collision of these claims—defection threats, sting operation allegations, cross-voting accusations—reveals a government and opposition locked in a struggle for control that has moved beyond policy disagreement into questions of political survival and institutional integrity. Vijayendra's prediction about 25 defecting legislators may prove prescient or hollow, but either way, it signals that the BJP believes the Congress government is vulnerable. Shivakumar's defiant response suggests he is not yet ready to concede that vulnerability, even as questions about sting operations and political tactics continue to swirl around his administration.