By IANS
Bangalore : The power transfer crisis in Karnataka deepened Saturday with ruling partners Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) taking a tough stand even as BJP minister B. Sriramulu, whose murder attempt charges against the chief minister brought the coalition to the brink, resigned.
Sriramulu, tourism minister, flew to Bangalore from Bellary in a chopper and submitted the resignation letter to his party leader and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa in the evening.
“Sriramulu had offered to resign a few times earlier also,” Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy reacted sarcastically to the tourism minister’s move intended to defuse the crisis created by him, a weak ahead of power transfer due on Oct 3.
Kumaraswamy is to give up his seat for the BJP on that date under an informal agreement he reached with it to form the coalition government in February 2006.
The chief minister is angry with the BJP leadership for not condemning or taking action against Sriramulu for the grave charges he had levelled against him.
“Four days have passed and not a single BJP leader has shown the courtesy to contact me on the issue to say they will take corrective action,” he told reporters on return from a brief visit to Puducherry.
“If developments like Sriramulu levelling murder attempt charges against me take place when I am still the chief minister, who can say what will take place after power transfer,” Kumaraswamy asked.
Reacting to BJP senior leader Yashwant Sinha’s statement at a press meet in Bangalore that the party hopes that the power transfer will be a smooth affair, he said with a smirk, “I am also hopeful.”
“The Bellary incident (Sriramulu’s charges) has no relation to power transfer which was agreed upon 20 months back,” Sinha said after a marathon discussion on the issue with state BJP leaders.
JDS president and Kumaraswamy’s father H.D. Deve Gowda on Thursday called off talks on power transfer with BJP central leaders in New Delhi and announced in Bangalore that Sriramulu’s charges had vitiated the atmosphere for power transfer.
BJP rushed Sinha, in-charge of party’s Karnataka affairs, to Bangalore Friday to talk to Deve Gowda to defuse the crisis.
But Gowda went off to Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu Saturday morning to visit temples.
While his aides said he would return late Saturday evening, BJP leaders said they expect him back only Sunday morning.
As of now there is no indication whether Gowda will agree to meet Sinha Sunday.
Sunday is when results of polls to the 209 civic bodies will be out.
The voting took place Friday and whatever be the performance of the ruling partners, the poll outcome is expected to only further worsen the crisis.
“If and when Sinha meets Deve Gowda, he will tell him that the Bellary issue is a separate matter and should not be treated as a major impediment to hand over of power,” a senior BJP leader told IANS.
“Sinha will ask Deve Gowda that JD-S fulfil its part of the agreement to hand over the chief ministership to the BJP as agreed,” he said.
The leader, requesting anonymity, said: “Sriramulu’s complaint has not been registered. Hence there is no ground for the JD-S’ grouse.”
He declined to comment on Kumaraswamy still being angry and not attaching any importance to Sriramulu’s resignation.
“Let us see. When a leader of the stature of Sinha meets a leader of the stature of Deve Gowda, things can work out smoothly.”
“We are hopeful,” he said.
Sriramulu’s resignation has been forwarded to the chief minister’s office, the leader said.
But Sriramulu did not make things easy for his party by launching a tirade against Kumaraswamy.
He charged Kumaraswamy’s close supporter and JD-S legislator from Bellary Suryanarayan Reddy with attempts to politically finish him and his supporters.
Suryanarayan Reddy added his own bit to the crisis telling reporters in Bellary that if power is transferred, he and his supporters may leave JD-S.