“We are not looking at destabilising the Karnataka government. The people have given a mandate to the Congress and we respect it. However, we will demand nothing short of an enquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the scam and the chief minister Siddaramaiah has to step down until the charges against him are cleared,” said the minister.

Last week, elected members of the BJP, including R Ashoka the leader of the opposition (LoP) and BY Vijayayendra, the state unit chief staged a protest in the Vidhan Soudha and the legislative council over the CM disallowing a discussion on the alleged Mysore Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam.

While the BJP legislators demanded accountability on the CM’s part, the latter’s detractors have also urged the Congress high command to penalise those involved in the MUDA fraud case and the Valmiki scam where funds meant for the tribals were supposedly appropriated by the ruling Congress party.

What lends credence to this development is that two senior Congress leaders confirmed this development, establishing that there are several dissenting factions in the party.

“Yes, there is more than one faction in the party. The ongoing feud between supporters of Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar notwithstanding, two other groups of leaders are unhappy about being denied posts in the party and the government,” said a Congress leader who did not wish to be named.

Infighting is now in the open

While reports of squabbles between Karnataka party president Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah died down after the Congress top brass’ intervention a few months ago, the BJP’s latest charges of the other Congress leaders looking to unseat its chief minister are worrisome for the party.

Senior functionaries BK Hari Prasad and KH Muniyappa are known to have conveyed their displeasure about the CM to a team of Congress leaders visiting from Delhi. The attempts to thwart the CM’s continuance were further propelled when his political advisor and senior MLA BR Patil issued a statement earlier in July calling for action against those involved in the scams.

“The Congress is in a revival mode at the national level after a fine performance in the Lok Sabha elections. It is critical for us to maintain a clean image since the party has a strong base in Karnataka. It is important to rein in some of our ministers whose activities are seen to be unbridled,” said Patil.

What is surprising — amid these allegations against the CM — is the meek response from the Congress in defence of Siddaramaiah. The CM is seen defending himself, rather unconvincingly, saying the BJP and JDS combine are targeting him for being a Kuruba. He said in the assembly last week, “We just submitted the application (for alternate sites). But who took the decision? Who decided on the 50:50 ratio on further land allocation? It was the BJP who made the decision,” he said, pinning the blame on the BJP for the alleged irregularities in the MUDA.

BJP - JDS demand action

The BJP has stepped up its campaign asking for the CM’s scalp. Last week, several Karnataka BJP MLAs including Ashoka and Vijayendra held an overnight stage-in protest and slept inside the Assembly and the legislative council on Wednesday over not allowing discussion regarding the inflated price of the 3.16 acres of land.

“All we are asking is why the chief minister did not declare these assets in his nomination forms since 2003 if they were owned by his wife back then. The 3.16 acres of land, now converted into 14 plots, figured only in the 2023 election. He needs to be above board as the legislature party leader and CM,” said Prahlad Joshi, the union minister for consumer affairs, public distribution system, and new and renewable energy.

The political opportunity aside, for the BJP and the JDS, a squabbling ruling unit means eyes away from the ongoing quarrel between the Gowda brothers, HD Kumaraswamy (HDK) and HD Revanna. The former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s sons have not been seeing eye to eye since the controversy involving Revanna’s sons Prajwal and Suraj over their allegedly sexual misdemeanours.

HDK and Joshi were in the state last Sunday to address a press conference on the recently presented union budget where they also advised the local BJP unit on the action to be taken in the two scams where the CM has been directly named.

“We are allowing BY Vijayendra to take this to a logical conclusion. After all, this is his chance to prove his mettle to the central leadership as state president,” Joshi told HT. BJP’s aggression comes after senior leader Arvind Limbavali openly accused the party of not acting strongly against the Congress and demanded the CM’s stepping down.

Soon after, NDA alliance partners met with Governor Thawarchand Gehlot and submitted a plea urging him to recommend a CBI probe into the alleged frauds.