Jagadish Shettar, MP and BJP leader, said that the Congress government in Karnataka would soon fall as Raju Kage and other MLAs want to defect to the BJP.

“The government will not stay for long. It will fall, as Congress MLAs are upset with their party’s government. A lot of Congress MLAs, including Kagwad MLA Raju Kage, want to join the BJP,” he told reporters in Belagavi on June 23. He was responding to Mr. Kage’s statement that he was so upset with the slow pace of development work in his constituency that he might resign.