This is Kamal Nath’s government, not Kumaraswamy’s. They will have to take seven births to do horsetrading in this government.” Congress leader Jitu Patwari says

Bhopal: The Karnataka drama, where for months the JDS-Congress government alleged the BJP was orchestrating its fall and the latter denied it, seems to find echoes up north of the country too.

Madhya Pradesh Minister and Congress leader Jitu Patwari said on Tuesday after the Kumaraswamy-led government had lost the trust vote, “The BJP has done everything to cause problems to us but this is Kamal Nath’s government, not Kumaraswamy’s. They will have to take seven births to do horsetrading in this government.”

As in Karnataka, the MP BJP also denied the allegation. Senior saffron party leader and former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “We’ll not cause the fall of government here (Madhya Pradesh). Congress leaders themselves have been responsible for the fall of their governments. There is an internal conflict in Congress, and the support of BSP-SP, if something happens to that, then we can’t do anything.”

In distant Karnataka, the JDS-Congress alliance lost the trust vote by notching just 99 votes while the BJP got 105. The coalition had made all efforts at stalling the trust vote and bring the rebel MLAs back to the fold but they showed no signs of returning.

Following his defeat, Kumaraswamy walked out of the Assembly and headed straight to the Raj Bhawan to put in his papers.

Moments before the floor test, Kumaraswamy had said that he would happily quit as the chief minister. “The other day, a channel ran a story saying we are pushing for load shedding. CM was pushing the state into darkness. Should I have become the CM to get such a certificate? Today, I am ready to quit happily,” he had said in his final speech before the voting began.