After Rajnath in Parliament, other BJP leaders deny involvement in K\'taka crisis

New Delhi: Union Minister Prahlad Joshi on Monday claimed that former Chief Minister of Karnataka Siddaramaiah is responsible for the present political crisis in the state.

"Siddaramaiah is the scriptwriter of the present political crisis in Karnataka because he does not want anyone from the former Prime Minister Deve Gowda's family to become the chief minister of the state. He wants to curb the alternative leadership of G Parameswara in the Congress party," Joshi told reporters here.

"But now it seems that things have gone out of Siddaramaiah's control as the MLAs in Mumbai have become united and they are saying that they will not return to Karnataka and there is no question of returning to Congress and JDS again. Now Siddaramaiah is blaming BJP and its leaders for the political turmoil which is condemnable. Out of his selfish interest, Siddaramaiah has made Kumaraswamy's government unstable," he claimed.

Joshi also said BJP has "no problem" if Congress and JDS can solve this political crisis, as the party has nothing to do with the turmoil.

"The main reason behind this crisis is the resignation of Congress leaders after the loss in the Lok Sabha polls. This was started with Congress President Rahul Gandhi resigning from his post...The Congress party is without any leader who could direct others what to do and that is why this type of political crisis happened in Karnataka," he claimed.

Asserting that BJP has no involvement in the political crisis of Karnataka, Ram Madhav said that the current situation is due to infighting in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

"'Ulta chor kotwal ko dante'. (it is a case of thief accusing the policeman). Whatever is happening in the Karnataka is happening because of the ambitions of certain leaders of their own party. There are leaders who are engineering dissent in their party. BJP has no involvement. We are just watching," he said when asked about the Congress blaming BJP for the political crisis in the state.

"The Congress-JD(S) coalition was against the wishes of people. Their infighting has created this issue," the the BJP national general secretory added.

The 13-month-old coalition government slumped into crisis following the resignation of their 11 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly on Saturday.

However, the resignations are yet to be accepted by Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.

Also earlier in the day, twenty-one ministers of the Congress in Karnataka resigned from the cabinet amid the ongoing political turmoil in the state.