Political morality defeated by BJP horse-trading: Congress

New Delhi  :  As the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular government in Karnataka lost its trust vote on Tuesday, the Congress accused the Centre, the BJP's central leadership, the Karnataka Governor and the Maharashtra government of acting together to enable the coalition's fall.

"Political morality and basic democratic values got defeated by the unscrupulous political horse-trading of the BJP in Karnataka," Congress General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal said in a statement.

Venugopal, who is also the in-charge of Karnataka and had been camping in Bengaluru since the 17 MLAs of the Congress and the JD-S resigned, said the "sabotage of a duly elected government in Karnataka carried out by the BJP is one of the most heinous and subversive instances of blatant political horse-trading the country has ever witnessed".

"The coalition government was brought down by the nefarious joint efforts of the Central government, the Governor, the state government of Maharashtra and Central BJP leadership." 

He alleged that the BJP carried out this political drama by offering huge amounts of black money and ministerial berths to MLAs to defect, as well as "misusing central agencies like Enforcement Directorate and Income Tax for black mailing and coercing MLAs". 

Venugopal said that the Congress and the JD-S fought on the floor of the house, in the Supreme Court as well as in the streets to uphold the democratic mores and values, and though the BJP won the numbers game, the Congress-JD(S) "had earned the moral victory".

He said that the party will hold nation wide protests against the "immoral, blatant and brazen political destabilisation" carried out by the BJP.