By IANS
Bangalore : The Congress favours the president’s rule in Karnataka and early polls to the assembly after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew its support to the H.D. Kumaraswamy government, a senior party leader said Sunday.
“The only alternative is imposition of the president’s rule and go for elections,” Congress spokesperson V.S. Ugrappa told IANS after a meeting of senior party leaders ahead of the arrival of Prithviraj Chavan, AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka affairs.
As the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) refused to transfer power to the BJP in accordance with their 20-month-old agreement, the latter Sunday formally withdrew support to the government, reducing it to minority.
Chavan will be here Sunday night and Monday, and may call on Governor Rameshwar Thakur after meeting state party leaders.
“The Congress is not ready to extend support (to the Kumaraswamy government),” Ugrappa said.
“Kumaraswamy and (JD-S president) H.D. Deve Gowda themselves have said they will not seek the Congress support and we are also not ready to extend it,” he said.
Chavan will be briefed about the state unit’s assessment of the political situation and the course the party should adopt, Ugrappa said.
Congress leaders held discussions at the residence of former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Dharam Singh for over 90 minutes Sunday after the BJP formally withdrew support to the Kumaraswamy ministry.
Besides Ugrappa, those who attended the meeting included state party president Mallikharjun Kharge, leader of the opposition in the legislative council H.K. Patil, former assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar, and the Gowda family’s archrival D.K. Shiva Kumar.
Ramesh Kumar and Shiva Kumar later met the governor and submitted a letter to him saying the opinion of the Congress should be taken into account before taking any decision.
“No such indication,” a senior party leader who attended the meeting at Dharam Singh’s residence said when asked whether the Congress high command was against early polls to prevent the BJP from exploiting a possible sympathy factor.