Bangalore, Nov 5 (IANS) As many as 129 legislators of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) will descend on New Delhi Monday evening or Tuesday morning to meet President Pratibha Patil to demand revocation of central rule and installation of their combine’s government in Karnataka.
Opposing the alliance’s claim to form the government again after falling apart and bitterly fighting over power sharing, the main opposition Congress Monday launched a month-long Janandolan (people’s protest) with a huge rally here.
The BJP and the JD-S decided to take the supporting legislators, 80 of BJP and 49 of JD-S, to the national capital as Governor Rameshwar Thakur had not acceded to their demand made on Oct 27.
Thakur was also reaching New Delhi Monday to present his final report to the president on whether the two parties can provide a stable government in the light of their strained ties over the JD-S failure to transfer power to the BJP on Oct 3 as agreed in February 2006.
Thakur has sent only a factual report on the coming together of the two parties to stake claim to form a government after attacking each other for three weeks from Oct 5 when the BJP pulled out of the alliance with the JD-S.
H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S resigned as chief minister on Oct 8, the state was brought under the president’s rule and the 225-member assembly has been kept in suspended animation.
On Sunday, the BJP temporarily suspended its two-day-old sit-in protest in Bangalore as Thakur was upset with it.
Kumaraswamy and his father and JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda have kept the BJP on tenterhooks even after extending support to it to form a government. They have laid down stiff conditions for the stability of the proposed government but have chosen to term these as suggestions.
On Sunday evening there was speculation that Thakur had asked the BJP to get a letter of unconditional support from the JD-S in view of the twists and turns in the latter’s stand. The BJP denied that Thakur had asked for any such letter but did try in vain to get one from JD-S.
Kumaraswamy declined to provide such a letter saying there was no need for it, according to JD-S sources.
He was also ambivalent till late Sunday evening on whether to take his party’s legislators to New Delhi to mount pressure on the president for early decision on the two parties’ claim.
Through the day he maintained that time has not come for it but gave in late Sunday to avoid further criticism that he and his father were playing games with the BJP.
Meanwhile, Oscar Fernandes, a central minister and senior party leader from Karnataka, inaugurated the Congress rally.
Fernandes, state unit president Mallikharjun Kharge and other leaders told the rally that dissolution of the assembly and early polls were the only solution to end the political crisis in the state.
They said the proposed BJP-JD-S government would not be stable, as the two have patched up their differences only to grab power.