BJP takes serious note of 3 legislators attending Congress dinner, vows to seek explanation

Karnataka BJP President B Y Vijayendra on Thursday termed as a "serious matter" three of his party legislators attending a dinner hosted by the Congress after its Legislature Party meeting here and said he would seek explanation from them.

State Congress President and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar said the legislators did not participate in any meeting, but only attended the dinner on Wednesday night, on his invitation.

The three are: MLAs -- S T Somashekar and Shivaram Hebbar -- and MLC H Vishwanath.

The three legislators, who are former Ministers, attending the dinner raised eyebrows and added to speculations that they might be contemplating to join the ruling Congress ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha polls. They had made no secret of their disenchantment with the BJP and its internal affairs, ever since the party lost the May Assembly polls.

The three were among the 17 Congress-JD(S) legislators who defected to BJP in 2019, which had led to the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led government and paved the way for BJP to come to power. Somashekar and Hebbar were Ministers in the previous BJP government.

While Somashekar and Hebbar had jumped ship to BJP from Congress. Vishwanath, originally a Congressman, was in JD(S) as its state chief, when he defected to BJP in 2019.

"Morning I got information about it. I will talk to them today itself, I will discuss what their intention is....it is a serious matter, I will discuss with them today itself," Vijayendra told reporters here.

Shivakumar said: "I had separately hosted a dinner, for which certain other party leaders were also invited, so they (Somashekar, Hebbar), also Vishwanath, and others, about ten people had come." Speaking to reporters here, he said: "why will they come to the Congress legislature party meeting ? They are not our party legislators. They did not come to the legislature party meeting, they had only come for dinner."