By IANS
Bangalore : Senior Congress leader M.M. Jacob, who is in charge of Karnataka, arrived here Monday, fuelling speculations of a tie-up with Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) that is to hand over chief ministership to coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in little over a month.
The Congress, however, officially said that Jacob’s visit was to assess the party’s readiness for the polls to the urban local bodies to be held next month.
“He is here in connection with local body polls,” Congress spokesperson V.S. Ugrappa told IANS.
“We go by the public statements of Janata Dal leaders on transfer of power and they have said they will do so,” he said.
But senior Congress leaders requesting anonymity said the party had not closed any option and the probability of forging an alliance with the JD-S again would be discussed during Jacob’s two-day visit.
JD-S and BJP came together in February 2006 to topple the Congress-JD-S government on an informal understanding that JD-S would hold the chief minister’s post for the first 20 months with the remaining 20 months going to BJP.
As the date for transfer of power approaches, there have been conflicting statements from JD-S leaders, with many wanting the incumbent H.D. Kumaraswamy to continue as chief minister.
Congress too is a divided house with one section favouring renewing the tie-up with JD-S to keep BJP away from power.
Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa of the BJP meanwhile met party president Rajnath Singh in New Delhi to brief him about the political situation in Karnataka. On Sunday he had met former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.