Kumaraswamy Takes a Break From Growing Political Crisis in Karnataka, Watches Trailer of Son's Movie

Bengaluru: It was a different battlefield a 'relaxed' Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy watched amid the political crisis in Karnataka ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

Taking time off from the turmoil his government is facing due to two MLAs withdrawing support to the government, Kumaraswamy watched the trailer of the movie 'Kurukshetra', the Kannada period drama from the Mahabharata era and based on the poetic marvel 'Gadayuddha' by poet Ranna.

Kumaraswamy son Nikhil Gowda plays the role of Abhimanyu in the film. The project has been produced by MLA Muniratna.

Enthralled with the trailer, the Karnataka CM said a movie of this large a scale has never been made in Kannada, where every minute detail was taken care of.

The two Independent MLAs, H Nagesh (Independent) and R Shankar (KPJP) on Tuesday withdrew support to the seven-month-old ministry amid turmoil triggered by charges of horse trading flung at each other by the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition and BJP.

But sources in the Congress said that there was no need to panic as the BJP still needs to get at least 14 to 15 MLAs. "Our tally without the Independents is 80 plus 37, while BJP is at 104," they said. The sources also warned that if the BJP tries to lure three of its MLA, the Congress will poach six BJP lawmakers in return.

Kumaraswamy also expressed confidence that his government is stable. “I am totally relaxed, I know my strength. I am enjoying what is going on,” he said.

"We have been saying that BJP is luring our MLAs through money and power but their attempts to destabilise the government will fail," Deputy CM G Parameshwara said, adding that their government is stable.