Don't drag PM into Karnataka crisis, says Lehar Singh

Bengaluru: BJP legislator Lehar Singh, a one-time close associate of the party’s state chief, B.S.Yeddyurappa, who has since fallen out with him ,  on Friday urged his party  leadership not to drag Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Union government into the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka.

While responding to CM H.D. Kumaraswamy’s threat to reopen cases against him, Mr Yeddyurappa had on Thursday warned that the BJP government at the  Centre would not be silent if he resorted to  vendetta politics. In an obvious reference to Mr Yeddyurappa’s statement,  Mr Singh advised his party to resist using the Prime Minister and the Union government when fighting its battles in the state. 

“For our petty ambitions we cannot make the Prime Minister look small and the Union government, vindictive. I don’t think anyone in our party has been authorised to threaten our rival parties using either the Prime Minister or the Central agencies,” he said, adding that when the BJP’s central leadership was busy with preparations for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and polls in four important states, it was inappropriate to drag it into Karnataka’s politics.

“We must ensure that Narendra Modi returns to power in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and does better than in 2014. Every Lok Sabha seat counts, especially those from Karnataka, where the BJP is strongest in the South,” he stressed in a press statement.