Karnataka's "rebel" Congress legislator Umesh Jadhav, who resigned from the state Assembly, fell prey to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP's) "Operation Kamala", party leader Siddaramaiah said today.
'Operation Kamala' or 'Operation Lotus' is a term coined in 2008 when the BJP allegedly engineered defections of opposition legislators to ensure that its government headed by BS Yeddyurappa remains stable.
"The circumstantial evidence clearly suggests that he (Umesh Jadhav) has fallen for #OperationKamala (referring to alleged poaching attempts by the BJP)," the former Chief Minister said in a series of tweets.
"People are saying that he has sold himself for money and power. If true, it is shameful on his part," he added.
Mr Jadhav, a two-time legislator from Chincholi constituency in Kalaburagi district, submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Monday without any explanation.
Hours later, G Madhusudhan, the state spokesman for the BJP, said Mr Jadhav would join the party on Wednesday at Kalaburagi where Prime Minister Narendra Modi would address a massive rally.
The Speaker is yet to accept Mr Jadhav's resignation.
"We had already petitioned to disqualify four MLAs, including Jadhav, as per anti-defection law for involving in anti-party activities. Resignation cannot be accepted without deciding our petition. Let us leave it to the speaker to decide," Siddaramaiah said in another tweet today.
Mr Jadhav's resignation came in the wake of the southern state's ruling coalition partners Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress and the opposition BJP trading charges of poaching each others' legislators since January.
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