BENGALURU: On a day the BJP appeared set to scuttle the budget presentation, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy took the saffron party by surprise by releasing an audio clip, purportedly of state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa trying to lure a JD(S) MLA to switch sides.“Show your real face,” he challenged PM Modi at a press meet called hours before the budget, saying the state BJP could not be carrying out Operation Lotus without the knowledge of the central leadership. “The BJP has been trying to destabilise my government from day one using illegal means and money earned through corruption,” Kumaraswamy alleged.The 10-minute audio clip, he alleged, contained a conversation between Yeddyurappa, Devadurga BJP MLA Shivanagouda Naik and Sharanagouda, son of JD(S) MLA from Gurmitkal, Nagannagouda Kandakur, at a government guesthouse in Devadurga of Raichur district late Thursday night. Yeddyurappa, he alleged, offered Sharanagouda Rs 10 crore cash and a ministerial berth if he (Sharanagouda) contested the byelection on a BJP ticket.Yeddyurappa said the clip was “fake” and “doctored”. “I will retire from politics if it is proved that the voice on the clip is mine,” he said. “Kumaraswamy is a cinema man and he can create such audio clips with voiceovers of others.” The CM said he might be a film producer, but the tape wasn’t fake.Even as the JD(S)-BJP slugfest was unfolding, the Congress finally decided to crackdown on dissident MLAs who defied the party whip for the third time in less than a month by skipping Friday’s Congress legislature party meeting. The party will approach the speaker to disqualify Ramesh Jarkiholi, Umesh Jadhav, Mahesh Kumattalli and B Nagendra. “The CLP has taken the decision to move for legal action against the four under the antidefection law,” said CLP leader Siddaramaiah.

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