By IANS
Bangalore : The first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in south was in trouble on the eve of the trust vote in the Karnataka assembly Monday as its coalition partner Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) remained firm demanding a written agreement for its support.
A meeting between Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and his predecessor H.D. Kumaraswamy of JD-S at a five-star hotel Sunday evening failed to resolve the differences over the JD-S demand for a ‘memorandum of understanding’ (MoU) between the two parties and also for allocation of key ministries to it.
However, Yeddyurappa told reporters after the meeting that he was confident of winning the trust vote in the 225-member assembly.
Kumaraswamy only said there was no problem between the partners. But he rushed to brief his father and JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda, a former prime minister, on the outcome of the talks.
Deve Gowda is insisting that the BJP sign the MoU before the trust vote. He told his party legislators at a meeting earlier in the day that a written agreement was necessary to keep the BJP under check and to protect the interests of the JD-S.
The legislators authorised Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy, state JD-S chief Merajuddin Patel and two senior party leaders M.P. Prakash and D. Manjunath to take a final decision Monday morning.
The JD-S legislators will meet at 9 a.m., two hours before the assembly session begins for the trust vote, to hear their leaders’ final decision.
Meanwhile, some BJP leaders opposed to signing any written agreement with JDS took up the issue with the party’s central leaders.
A senior BJP leader said the party’s central leadership had told Yeddyurappa not to yield to the JD-S pressure, though he was inclined to reach an agreement to save his ministry.
In the 225-member house, the BJP has 79 members, the JD-S 51 and the Congress 65. The rest belong to small parties and independents.
Of the 51 JD-S members, 49 had pledged their support to Yeddyurappa. On the basis of individual letters and sworn affidavits of support by the 79 BJP and 49 JD-S legislators, Governor Rameshwar Thakur had installed Yeddyurapa ministry on Nov 12.