Shivakumar calls on aggrieved BJP workers to join Congress in Karnataka

Karnataka minister and Congress heavyweight D K Shivakumar Wednesday appealed to aggrieved BJP workers in Channapatna to join the Congress party. His appeal comes a day after Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara accused the BJP of making a fresh bid to topple the Congress-JDS coalition government in the state. As the war of words between the BJP and Congress over the alleged toppling game intensified, Parameshwara Tuesday claimed that efforts were on to arrange a meeting of his party's disgruntled MLAs with BJP president Amit Shah.

Parameshwara also asserted that the BJP move would not succeed. In a press release, Shivakumar, who is also the Ramanagardistrict in-charge minister, Wednesday said some BJP workers were upset over the way the BJP's top functionaries were behaving to"fulfil their vested interests." Many such aggrieved leaders had expressed their pain to him, Shivakumar said, adding that Congress welcomes them.

"Our doors are always open to receive all those BJP leaders from Channapatna who have faith in the Congress' ideology," Shivakumar said. The minister said the Congress believed in secularism, social justice, equality, unity and integrity of the nation. The BJP on Monday had maintained that it was not trying to dislodge the coalition government in Karnataka while the Congress had claimed it has evidence of 'horse trading' of its MLAs, alleging that they were each 'offered' Rs 25 crore to 30 crores.

(With inputs from agencies.)