While most senior leaders of both the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress remained cautiously silent over six Ministers seeking a gag order on the media from court, the party units fought it out on Twitter on Saturday.
“Why have ministers sought gag orders even before anything incriminating against them is revealed?” tweeted Karnataka Congress, arguing that it shows how the BJP had come to power on the back of several alleged murky dealings. “Now we understand why your own people called you Blackmail Janata Party,” said another tweet. Congress also attacked Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP Shobha Karandlaje for refusing to comment on the issue.
BJP Karnataka hit back posing a series of questions as to whether seven JD(S) MLAs cross-voting during Siddaramaiah’s tenure or further back in history, toppling of the Devaraj Urs government was not “Operation Hasta”.
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Meanwhile, JD(S) leader S.R. Mahesh has demanded all the six Ministers who have approached the court seeking a gag order must be sacked from the Cabinet. He wondered why the Ministers had approached the court if they had not committed any wrongdoing.
The move by the Ministers, who were part of the group of coalition MLAs that had camped in a resort in Mumbai during the fall of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, also raises doubts if there had been a conspiracy to blackmail them earlier as well, he said.