People now resent ‘Operation Lotus’, will dump the BJP: Congress

Mumbai, July 4 (IANS) Slamming the "unconstitutional" government that is currently ruling in Maharashtra, Congress leader H.K. Patil on Tuesday said that the people have now started resenting ‘Operation Lotus’ politics and they will dump the Bharatiya Janata Party in the next elections.

Patil, who is a Minister in the Karnataka government, said that while the illegal government rules in Maharashtra, the issue of disqualification of 16 MLAs here is still undecided and the ‘politics of violence’ is again practiced in Maharashtra.

“The people did not like the ‘Operation Lotus’ implemented by the BJP there… Now they have made the BJP sit at home. Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) will present a unified challenge to the BJP in the next elections,” Patil, who is in-charge of Maharashtra, said at a meeting of the state Congress leaders in the wake of the recent political turbulence that has hit the MVA ally, Nationalist Congress Party a year after the Shiv Sena-UBT had faced an internal turmoil and then a split.

Patil said that both NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Shiv Sena-UBT Uddhav Thackeray are popular and enjoy huge public support, and the three MVA parties will give a united challenge to the BJP in the coming elections.

The meeting was convened by Congress Legislature Party leader Balasaheb Thoat, and was attended by state party President Nana Patole, ex-CMs Ashok Chavan and Prithviraj Chavan, Working President M. Arif Naseem Khan, Basavaraj Patil, AICC Secretary Sampath Kumar, plus around 39 of the 45 MLAs in the state.

Patil later told media persons that the BJP is worried by the major alliance of national opposition parties building up in the country.

“Seeing the increasing strength of the Opposition, the BJP is resorting to dividing them, breaking up their parties, deploying the central investigating agencies for the purpose,”he claimed.

Despite all this, the Maharashtra Congress is standing united and firm under the guidance of President Mallikarjun Kharge, and top leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. “We are confident of emerging as a major force to reckon with in the future elections in the state,” said Patil.