There is no limit to the money being floated by the BJP, he said adding, Congressmen were like rats meekly following the pied piper.
With Congress lawmakers quitting and cosying up to BJP in various states, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took a dig at them, saying the grand old party was giving a helping hand in the saffron party's membership drive.
"In various states, the people's representatives and leaders of the congress are joining the BJP.Congress has become a party engaged in increasing the membership of the BJP," he said at a function here.
Apparently referring to the mass resignations in Congress in various states, including Karnataka and Goa, Vijayan asked whether a party like that "should remain an orphan without a leader" at a time when the country was going through a very difficult phase.
He said the Congress leadership must be prepared to face the challenges.
Not only during victories, but also during a crisis situation, there is a need to face it and give strong leadership, he said at a function here.
1. Don't need your advice: KPCC
The Chief Minister said the CPI(M) had for long been saying that those in the Congress cannot be trusted and none were sure when they would leave their party.
There is no limit to the money being floated by the BJP, he said adding, Congressmen were like rats meekly following the pied piper.
Meanwhile, KPCC President Mullapally Ramachandran hit out at Vijayan, saying he should find immediate solutions to strengthen CPI(M) at the national and state levels after the drubbing the Left front received in the Lok Sabha polls, instead of interfering in Congress' internal affairs.
"Congress does not want Vijayan's panecea for resurrecting the party," he said.
Vijayan had from the beginning thwarted Rahul Gandhi's efforts to form a front of secular democratic forces against the BJP at the national level, Ramachandran said in a statement.
2. Rahul says BJP using money power
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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Friday claimed that the BJP uses "money power" and "intimidation" to topple governments and accused the saffron party of doing the same in Karnataka.
Sixteen MLAs including 13 from the Congress, have resigned and two Independents have withdrawn support to the 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the southern state.
"BJP uses money power or threat to topple governments wherever it can. You saw this first in Goa, in the Northeast, and now are trying to do the same in Karnataka. It is their way of functioning. They have money, power, and they use it. This is the reality," Gandhi told reporters here.
"The Congress is fighting for truth, because truth makes Congress stronger," he said in reply to a question on what his party would do now.
The former Congress president was here to appear before a metropolitan court in a defamation case filed by the Ahmedabad District Cooperative Bank in which BJP chief Amit Shah is one of the directors.
3. Story so far in Karnataka
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Three rebel Congress and JDS MLAs failed to appear before Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar Friday as sought by him for a personal hearing over their resignations, official sources said.
The Speaker had on July 9 asked the three MLAs to appear before him at his office between 3 pm and 4 pm Friday for a personal hearing.
The MLAs are Narayana Gowda of JDS and Anand Singh and Prathap Gouda Patil of Congress.
However, none of them turned up, the sources said.
While Gowda and Patil remained in Mumbai along with other rebels, Singh is learnt to have left for Goa.
Earlier in the day, the Speaker told reporters that I will start the process if they come..."
The three MLAs are part of the first batch of 13 legislators of the ruling Congress-JDS combine who resigned from the assembly last Saturday, dealing a blow to the coalition government. Later, three other MLAs quit.
Ramesh Kumar had held that the resignation letters of only five out of the 13 MLAs were in proper format. Besides that of Gowda, Patil and Singh, the letters of K Gopaliah (JDS) and Ramalinga Reddy (Congress) were found in order.
He had then fixed July 15 for hearing Gopaliah and Reddy while asking others to submit their resignations properly.
