By IANS
Bangalore : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) stayed away from a sit-in protest by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to press Karnataka Governor Rameshwar Thakur to invite the two parties’ combine to form a government in the state.
State BJP chief D.V. Sadananda Gowda had Friday announced that the parties would jointly begin the protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue, about a kilometre away from the Raj Bhavan in the city centre.
However, no JD-S leader turned up as the BJP began the protest led by its vice president M. Venkaiah Naidu.
The BJP staked a claim on Oct 27 to form a government with the support of the JD-S, three weeks after the two parties had fallen apart over power transfer, leading to the resignation of the ministry headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S.
On Oct 29, the two parties presented to the governor 129 legislators in support of an alternative government led by BJP’s B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Thakur has so far not acceded to the demand and the BJP’s protest is directed against the delay.
Karnataka was placed under the president’s rule and the assembly kept under suspended animation on Oct 9, the day after Kumaraswamy quit.
Thakur has sent only an interim report to President Pratibha Patil on the political situation and is yet to send a final report with his recommendation either to revoke the president’s rule to facilitate installation of the BJP-led government or dissolve the assembly.
The BJP has been accusing the Congress, the main opposition party in the state, of pressuring Thakur to reject its claim to form a government.
A BJP delegation led by senior leader L.K. Advani and party chief Rajnath Singh has already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi demanding an early end to the president’s rule in the state.
BJP central leadership sent Venkaiah Naidu to Bangalore Friday with a message regarding the new conditions set by JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda to continue his party support to the BJP.
Naidu met Yeddyurappa, Sadananda Gowda and other senior state leaders for more than two hours Saturday.
On Deve Gowda’s new conditions, which include a powerful role to his son Kumaraswamy in the proposed set-up, Naidu said: “Our party president Rajnath Singh will deal with it.”
The BJP is also planning to take the 129 legislators to the president in New Delhi if there is no favourable response from Thakur to its demand.