Mamta Banerjee on Karnataka row: 'Nothing new, BJP acts like this'

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday criticised Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for Karnataka political situation and said that the 'ruling dispensation in the Centre is used of behaving like this'.

Replying to media query on political turmoil brewing in Karnataka, Banerjee said: "This is an old thing. Even if you see there are some areas in the Northeastern region as well, they have applied the same thing. Even the same thing has been applied at one or two other areas as well. This is nothing new; they are the ruling party they are used to behave like this."

She also refused to make any comments on the Supreme Court order disallowing BJP's 'Yatrs' in the state but welcomed the decision.

"It is a court order and I welcome the court order," the West Bengal Chief Minister said.

Earlier in the day, Karnataka Cabinet Minister K J George asserted that there is no political crisis in Karnataka and BJP is creating an atmosphere in the wake of upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The situation in the state has however intensified after two Independent MLAs H Nagesh and R Shankar on Tuesday withdrew support to the JD(S)-Congress government headed by H D Kumaraswamy in Karnataka.

In the 224-member Assembly, JD(S) has 37 MLAs and its coalition partner has 80. It has the support of some Independents in the House where the majority figure is 113.

Nagesh and Shankar wrote separate letters to the Governor conveying their decision to withdraw support to the government.