By IANS
Bangalore : An angry Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Karnataka was Tuesday charting elaborate plans to capitalise on public sympathy after being ousted from power in just a week by the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).
BJP legislators met in the presence of senior party leader Yashwant Sinha to chalk out plans to get maximum electoral benefit from the JD-S “betrayal”.
“We have many, many issues to take to the people. We will finalise our plans soon,” state BJP president D.V. Sadananda Gowda told reporters after the meeting.
Meanwhile, there was despondency in the JD-S camp. Separate groups of party legislators met in Bangalore to assess the possible adverse impact of the party’s decision to pull down the BJP-led ministry despite extending unconditional support to its formation on Nov 12.
Realising that a majority of the legislators were angry at his father and party president H.D. Deve Gowda’s decision to pull down the BJP-led ministry, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy held talks with several of them trying to assuage their feelings.
In the Congress, the third major political force in Karnataka, a section was happy that the central leadership had not attempted to join hands again with JD-S, while others were baffled at the swift decision to go to parliament to seek its approval for dissolution of the assembly.
State Congress chief Mallikharjun Kharge welcomed the decision to impose president’s rule and recommend dissolution of the assembly. “We have been demanding early elections. We do not want to go with the JD-S again,” he told reporters.
Most of the 51 JD-S legislators are opposed to early polls. Many of them had reportedly refused to accept the whip at Monday’s party meeting to vote against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s government during the trust vote in the assembly.
The legislators had fallen in line under the belief that a Congress-JD-S coalition was about to come to power again, 21 months after Kumaraswamy brought it down by forging an alliance with the BJP.
They were shocked to learn Tuesday morning that the central government has not only decided to impose President’s rule but recommend dissolution of the assembly.
One group of legislators met at the residence of senior leader M.P. Prakash and another at the residence of staunch Gowda-loyalist and former transport minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy, who surprisingly was among those unwilling to accept the whip Monday.
Cheluvarayaswamy told reporters after the meeting with about 10 legislators that he was upset at what had happened (bringing down the Yeddyurappa ministry).
“We will decide our future course of action after hearing from Deve Gowda on his return from New Delhi,” one of the legislators said.