By IANS
Bangalore : The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) efforts to gain a foothold in the country’s south came to nought Monday when its Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa quit office after mercurial partner Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) withdrew support to its weeklong government.
In a dramatic turnaround, exactly a week after Yeddyurappa had taken oath with the entire top brass of the BJP present, the JD-S announced that it would vote against the BJP when the assembly takes up a confidence vote, setting the stage for the fall of the second government in the state in less than two months.
For the embattled BJP, it was an unhappy repeat of its 1996 attempt at the national level when Atal Bihari Vajpayee quit as prime minister 13 days after being sworn in as he could not muster majority support in the Lok Sabha.
Yeddyurappa launched a bitter attack on the JD-S for going back on its word after moving the one-line motion seeking the confidence of the house.
“We will go to the people and thoroughly expose the JD-S betrayal,” he said, announcing that he was demitting office.
“For the sake of power, JD-S is ready to go to any extent,” he said, adding that the people of Karnataka would appreciate the decision “not to bow to JD-S’ pressure tactics”.
Yeddyurappa said the JD-S wanted to retain the mines and geology and urban development ministries with it though they were to come to the BJP as per the agreement between the two parties in February 2006.
The assembly proceedings began as scheduled at around 11 a.m. Monday with the JD-S legislators being issued a whip by their leader and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to vote against the motion.
Yeddyurappa had told reporters at the state secretariat earlier in the day that there was no question of his resignation — though his party has only 79 members in the 225-member assembly.
But there were few options. The JD-S, which had extended unconditional support to the Yeddyurappa-led ministry a week ago, changed its stand after the BJP refused to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on its terms for its vital legislative support.
Yeddyurappa and his JD-S predecessor Kumaraswamy met Sunday in a last minute bid to resolve differences, but the effort failed as the BJP rejected the coalition partner’s demand for the cash-rich ministries, among other things.
JD-S has 51 members in the house and the Congress 65, with smaller parties and independents making up the rest.
The two parties had come together for the first time in February 2006 to form a government headed by Kumaraswamy of the JD-S on the understanding that they would share the chief minister’s office for 20 months each.
However, Kumaraswamy refused to make way for Yeddyurappa on Oct 3 when his term expired, and the BJP pulled out of the alliance two days later. On Oct 8, Kumaraswamy resigned and the state was brought under President’s rule with the assembly kept in suspended animation.
Kumaraswamy and his father, JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda, did a volte-face three weeks later and extended unconditional support to a Yeddyurappa-led ministry. The two parties met Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Oct 27 and staked claim to form government.
The two parties also submitted to Thakur individual letters and sworn affidavits by 79 BJP and 49 JD-S legislators supporting Yeddyurappa.
Since Thakur did not respond even a week after, Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy took the supporting legislators to President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi.
On Nov 8, the central government decided to revoke President’s rule and Yeddyurappa was sworn-in chief minister on Nov 12. He was directed to prove his majority before Nov 20.
But even before Yeddurappa was sworn in, Deve Gowda had sent a letter to his BJP counterpart Rajnath Singh seeking a written understanding on 12 points for continuing JD-S support.
The thrust of the 12 conditions was a powerful role to his son Kumaraswamy.
On Monday morning, just two hours before the assembly session was to begin, Kumaraswamy rang the death knell for the seven-day-old chief minister, crushing the BJP’s hopes of running a government in the southern state for 20 months.