Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said ‘Operation Kamala’ was underway and the BJP, RSS and all other central forces were at work to destabilise Karnataka before the Lok Sabha elections and impose governor's rule.

Stating that the saffron brigade’s poaching attempts would not succeed, he said, “Aur kitna bhi girane ki koshish karne do, agar ek jaenge to 10 udhar se aenge (Let them try to destabilise the government. If one goes from our camp, 10 will come from there).

The leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha said, earlier too, this was done by BJP leader and former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa in 2008. “This is a brainchild of BJP. Some are being lured with money, some with power, some are being threatened,” he was quoted as telling ANI.

On Friday, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said the BJP had offered huge “gift” to a Congress MLA on Thursday night asking him to defect to the BJP.

Speaking to media, he said “The BJP is desperate for power. They want to topple my government before next month. They are offering unimaginable amount of money for defection. Where do they get the money from? Yeddyurappa must answer. Our Congress MLA has flatly refused their offer. We are united and no amount of pressure and money will make our MLAs defect to their side.”

The state Congress leadership is also keeping a close watch on some of its MLAs who are allegedly in touch with the BJP. Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah and state Congress president Dinesh Gundurao have asked senior leaders to make sure that no MLA goes with the BJP.

Speaking to News18, Siddaramaiah said, “PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah are directly behind it. They know that they are losing the Lok Sabha elections in the next three months. If we contest with JDS, we will win more than 20 Lok Sabha seats from Karnataka. Because of that the BJP is offering up to Rs 100 crore per MLA. I have never seen a more shameless political party in my 45 years of political life.”

Yeddyurappa said the BJP was not into “operation Kamala”. Speaking to News18, he said, “The Congress and the JDS have serious differences. The government will collapse on its own. We are not doing anything.”

The JDS-Congress coordination committee, which met in Bengaluru on Thursday, exuded the confidence that all attempts of the BJP to topple the government would be foiled at any cost.​