MANGALURU/BENGALURU/ KOLAR: The audio clip of BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa allegedly trying to influence JD(S) Gurmitkal MLA Naganagouda Kandakur dominated the political battle in Karnataka on Saturday.Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy at the Manjunatha Temple in Dharmasthala , Dakshina Kannada, said he’d retire from politics if the audio clip he released on Friday turned out to be fabricated. He was responding to Yeddyurappa’s vow to quit his MLA seat and retire from active politics if the voice in the audio tape was genuine.Meanwhile, the BJP said it’ll release a clip in the assembly on Monday of “Kumaraswamy allegedly seeking money to give an MLC ticket to his partyman.”BJP’s Aravind Limbavali said his party would hand over the clip to the Speaker in the House, and invited the CM to witness it. The clip’s content has been in the public domain since 2014.Poaching leaves BJP a divided lotUnease has crept into state BJP leadership as repeated efforts by B S Yeddyurappa to topple the coalition government have become unsuccessful. With his trusted lieutenants distancing themselves from BSY’s efforts to return to power, the poaching work has been left to party’s second-rung leadership. P 6In the purported audio clip, Kumaraswamy is allegedly heard telling a party leader that each JD(S) MLA was demanding Rs 1 crore for exercising his/her franchise in the legislative council elections.Kumaraswamy said BJP leaders, including those from the Centre, were free to release any audio or video clip. “I am not an escapist like Yeddyurappa who will backtrack. Does the recording show me asking or offering money? It was merely an observation on the system,” he noted.The Manjunatha Temple had figured in the battle between Kumaraswamy and then CM Yeddyurappa in 2011. Kumaraswamy had alleged he’d been approached by a Yeddyurappa emissary who offered financial inducements in return for stopping the relentless charges of corruption.On Saturday, Kumaraswamy said: “If what I have recorded is fake, why wait for Yeddyurappa to resign? I myself will quit politics.”He was in Dharmasthala for inauguration of the Mahamastakabhisehka and recalled the ‘aane pramana’ (truth test) between him and Yeddyurappa at Sri Kshetra Dharmasthala in 2011. “I learnt a lesson from that incident and won’t dare resort to any falsehood in the Kshetra that is the abode of Lord Manjunatha. He sees everything silently and gives people their just rewards, something which Yeddyurappa learnt the hard way when he was forced to step down as CM within a month after constitutional agencies indicted him of wrong-doing,’’ he added.Earlier, Kumaraswamy said there was a need to investigate the veracity of the audio clip. “We’re ready to set up an investigating team, under the stewardship of PM Narendra Modi if he agrees,” he said.Hours before presenting the state budget on Friday, Kumaraswamy had thrown a bomb shell on the BJP by releasing an audio clip of an alleged conversation between Yeddyurappa, Devadurga BJP MLA Shivanagouda Naik and Sharanagouda, son of JD(S) MLA from Gurumitkal Naganagouda Kandakur at a government guest house in Devadurga in Raichur district late Thursday night.In the 10-minute clip, Yeddyurappa is heard offering Rs 10 crore and a ministerial berth to Sharanagouda if he made his father resign and contest the bypoll on a BJP ticket.Kumaraswamy said: “I got calls from MLAs. While contacting them, Yeddyurappa claims he has 114/115 (MLAs) and it’s a matter of time before the coalition collapses.”He accused BJP leaders CN Ashwathnarayan and CP Yogeshwar of luring coalition MLAs and said his government is like a boulder that can’t be easily shaken.On the speaker’s statement that the audio didn’t have Yeddyurappa talking about the deal, he said: “Did I say he spoke about Rs 50 crore? I had said the speaker’s name has been dragged into it (discussion). Devadurga MLA Shivanagauda Naik had spoken about booking the speaker.”

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