Mangaluru:  Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, on Saturday, offered to take political retirement if the audio clip he shared before the Budget about the attempt to poach a JDS MLA allegedly by BS Yeddyurappa in the state was proven fabricated.

He was talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Mahamasthabhisheka programme at Dharmasthala.

Stressing he was in the Kshetra where God keenly watched the words of people uttered here and hands out justice to the lying tongue, he said, "If what was released yesterday is proven to not be words uttered by Yeddyurappa but a mimicry and mere theatrics by Kumaraswamy, he (Yeddyurappa) doesn't have to politically retire. I will."

In a fresh allegation against the BJP, chief minister HD Kumaraswamy said the BJP had contacted one of the MLAs in the state’s coalition government on Saturday morning luring him to join the saffron party.

The chief minister said despite ‘the cat being let out of the bag’, BS Yeddyurappa had not mended his ways and was continuing Operation Lotus in a bid to topple the coalition government.

However, he said, these efforts by the BJP were futile as his government was rocksteady.

Will take political sanyas if tapes can be proved: B S Yeddyurappa

About the Rs 30 crore bribe allegation made by Mahadevpura MLA Aravind Limbavali, Kumaraswamy said either the state BJP or the union government could play the video footage against him and he was ready to face it. He said the incident pertains to Bijapura's Vijaygowda, who switched sides from the JD(S) to the BJP. He said he had spoken to Vijayagowda, then an MLC candidate, in the presence of at least 50 supporters and that it was not a closed-door meet, adding he did not seek money during the discussion.

Regarding speaker Ramesh Kumar’s statement that the voice in the audio released on Friday was not that of Yeddyurappa, Kumaraswamy said the speaker only wanted a fair probe into the case and the final verdict would be out at the assembly tomorrow.