By IANS
Bangalore : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) has again put off a decision on early polls to the Karnataka assembly or forming a government with the Congress, apparently waiting for a clear signal from the Congress high command on its intention.
“The decision will be known in three to four days,” JD-S spokesperson Y.S.V. Datta told IANS Monday.
Last week the party announced that a final decision would be made public on Oct 22 after a meeting of former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and other senior party leaders with JD-S president H.D. Deve Gowda.
“The meeting is not taking place today as several senior leaders are on tour,” Datta said.
The 51 JD-S legislators, majority of whom are against early polls, authorized Kumaraswamy, party state president Merajuddin Patel and senior party leader and former home minister M.P. Prakash to convey to Deve Gowda their views and take a final decision.
“Deve Gowda is for elections. Whatever the legislators have said is their individual opinion and they will abide by party’s decision,” Datta said when asked whether his party was waiting for the Congress to make the move to seek the JD-S support for forming the government.
The Kumaraswamy ministry fell early this month after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support because he did not, as promised 20 months back, hand over the power to the BJP.
Meanwhile, a group of Independent legislators was trying to persuade the JD-S and the Congress to come together and form a government to avoid early polls. The assembly has still 20 months of its term left.
“An overwhelming majority of the legislators is against dissolution of the house and early polls,” Jayaprakash Hegde, an Independent legislator, told reporters Monday.
The 225-member assembly is under suspended animation and the state under the president’s rule following Kumaraswamy’s resignation Oct 8.