NEW DELHI/BANGALORE, 28 September 2007 — Cracks in an alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-S (JD-S), which are sharing the government in Karnataka, have surfaced with former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H.D. Gowda calling off talks with BJP leaders.
Six days ahead of the proposed power transfer in Karnataka, JD(S) yesterday mounted two-pronged pressure on the BJP to accept its terms.
Gowda and his son, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, took seemingly contradictory stands on the issue, leaving BJP little space to maneuver.
Deve Gowda canceled his meetings with BJP central leaders in New Delhi and rushed back to Bangalore to announce that the political atmosphere was not “healthy” for transfer of power.
Hours later, Kumaraswamy maintained that he will resign on Oct. 3 as agreed upon when he joined hands with the BJP in February 2006 to topple the Congress-JD-S coalition and form a JD-S-BJP government in the state.
Visibly upset about allegations of attempt to murder against his son leveled by Tourism Minister B. Sriramulu of BJP, Gowda said: “I am more concerned about my son’s welfare now and not about power transfer.”
“Perhaps this is for the first time in history that such charges are being leveled against a chief minister in the country. How can there be any discussion on power transfer in these circumstances?” he asked.
But Kumaraswamy said: “I will stick to my word and quit on Oct 3. I do not want to go back on my word as my image is important for me.”
Officially, the BJP maintained that power transfer will take place as agreed on Oct. 3. But senior party leaders said on condition of anonymity that the father-son combine was working in tandem to force it take action against Sriramulu.
They noted that the seemingly contradictory stand was intended to convey to the BJP that if the JD-S’ terms were not accepted, the BJP cannot expect its support to form the next government.
The leaders said Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy know that the BJP can ill afford to act against Sriramulu as that will send a wrong signal to its supporters.
“It will be big loss of face for the party as it has already suspended party MLC K. Janardhana Reddy for levelling corruption charges against Kumaraswamy,” a senior BJP leader said.
Reddy and Sriramulu are close associates and belong to iron-ore rich Bellary district and are major contributors to the BJP’s kitty.
In New Delhi, Deve Gowda was to meet senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha at 12 noon followed by lunch at BJP President Rajnath Singh’s residence with veteran leader L.K. Advani. Neither appointment worked out.
The former prime minister added that the BJP’s central leadership was keeping mum on such wild allegations, and said unless the party took “action to rein in its ministers” there was no point in talking about power transfer.
In New Delhi, the party’s general secretary Kunwar Danish Ali said: “For the last 20 months BJP men in Karnataka have been harassing our leaders, but the high command here has done nothing.”
