By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday ended its 20-month-old coalition with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in Karnataka and called for fresh elections, terming the latter’s refusal to keep its promise and hand over power as “the worst betrayal” in Indian politics.
“The parliamentary board has decided to withdraw support to the H.D. Kumaraswamy government,” BJP vice president Yashwant Sinha told a news conference here, signalling a virtual collapse of the BJP-JD-S government in the southern state.
Speaking after a meeting of the BJP’s parliamentary board, Sinha said that leaders from Karnataka led by Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa were flying back to Banglaore to inform Governor Rameshwar Thakur about the decision.
Sinha said Yediyurappa and Karnataka BJP president Sadanand Gowda would give the governor a letter intimating the withdrawal of support to the JD-S government “and apprise him of the circumstances”.
“We want fresh elections in the state,” Sinha demanded.
Former BJP president M. Venkaiah Naidu described the Karnataka development as the “worst betrayal of any political party in the country”.
He said: “The people of Karnataka will not forgive them. They will teach them a befitting reply.”
In response to a question, Sinha – a bureaucrat-turned-politician – said his party had learnt a bitter lesson from the experience.
“We have learnt a lesson, we have to be careful in future (while forming coalitions),” he said.
The BJP decision follows a late night meeting between BJP president Rajnath Singh and JD-S chief and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda Friday at which both leaders failed to break the deadlock over the power transfer.
The JD-S has refused to hand over power to the BJP, violating an agreement reached between the two parties when they formed the coalition in February 2006. The BJP was to get the reins of the state after 20 months.
Under the agreement, Chief Minister Kumaraswamy’s term ended Oct 3.
The JD-S, which took power after derailing a coalition it earlier had with the Congress in which it was the junior partner, has refused to give up power in the state.
The BJP had been desperate to take over from Kumaraswamy because it would have given it a chance to rule one of the southern states for the first time.
But relations between the BJP and JD-S soured in the past few months, and eventually both Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy refused to keep their side of the bargain after having enjoyed the BJP’s support for the past 20 months.
The Congress, which earlier felt betrayed by the JD-S, is a divided house. While a section wants to again have an alliance with the JD-S, another group favours early elections.
The last assembly election in 2004 threw up a splintered verdict, making the BJP the single largest party. The Congress and JD-S, finishing second and third respectively, then ganged up to take power to keep the BJP out.
The JD-S later jettisoned the Congress – and now the BJP.