NEW DELHI, 2 November 2007 — The political crisis in Karnataka continued yesterday with the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA) deciding not to take up the issue until President Pratibha Patil returns from Kerala. Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told journalists after the meeting yesterday that CCPA discussed only routine matters. Karnataka was not discussed, Chidambaram said. The issue may come up before the Cabinet today.
Karnataka was put under president’s rule on Oct. 9, following the decision of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to pull out support from the coalition government led by Janata Dal-Secular’s (JD-S) H.D. Kumaraswamy.
But now that the JD-S has extended support to the BJP leader B.S. Yediyurappa, the two parties have been anxiously waiting for an invitation from the governor to form the government.
On Wednesday, a BJP delegation headed by L.K. Advani met the prime minister on the issue.
In his report, Governor Thakur has claimed that the present political scenario in Karnataka is not conducive to the formation of a stable government. The governor is not in favor of revoking the president’s rule in support of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Janata Dal-S (JD-S) combine.
The BJP legislators are still hoping that they would be given a chance to prove their majority on the floor of the House. Pressure is also said to be mounting on Congress to give BJP-JD (S) a chance or else the governor would be seen as a Congress loyalist.
BJP is intense about continuing its demonstration till it is provided this opportunity. “We hope that good sense prevails, otherwise the satyagraha (demonstration for truth) will continue,” senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said.
