Operation Kamala: Karnataka Cong to file police complaint over audio clip

Bengluru, Dec 4: A day after an audio clip triggered fresh charges of attempts by BJP to topple the HD Kumaraswamy ministry, the state Congress Tuesday said it would lodge a police complaint over the issue while asserting all MLAs of the party and its ruling partner JDS were with the government.

On behalf of the KPCC, we are lodging a complaint to find out between whom the conversation took place...

Conspiracies are being hatched, which must be investigated at the government level," Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters here.

He asserted that no MLA from the Congress or JD(S) was ready to switch sides. "We all are together."

The audio clip which surfaced Monday and went viral contained purported conversation between a confidant of BJP MLA B Sriramulu and a Dubai-based businessman discussing that at least 10 to 11 MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) were ready to switch sides with specific names being mentioned.

"They have been offered Rs 20 crore to Rs 25 crore and ministership. By the second week it has to happen," the confidant is heard purportedly saying in Hindi in the audio.

Sriramulu Tuesday rejected the charges and questioned the authenticity of the audio clip.

The former Ballari MP told reporters that his personal assistant never spoke in Hindi.

Meanwhile, Ballari-based mining baron and former BJP minister G Janardhana Reddy Tuesday visited the Jindal Naturecure Institute in the city, adding more fuel to the speculations since two Congress MLAs were undergoing treatment there.

However, both the MLAs denied any contact between them and Reddy.

The ruling coalition had in the past too accused BJP of attempting to poach its MLAs, a charge denied by the saffron party.