By IANS
New Delhi : The alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Janata Dal-United in Karnataka seems headed for a rift with JD-U president Sharad Yadav Friday describing the ties as being “in tatters”.
Without naming the BJP, Yadav here said: “They have betrayed the alliance and alliance politics. Our alliance is in tatters today.”
Hinting at his party charting an independent course in the Karnataka assembly elections next month, the JD-U chief alleged that the BJP had failed to fulfil its coalition ‘dharma’. He said: “Our parliamentary party committee is meeting April 15 and we will decide our future course of action then.”
Complaining of BJP highhandedness, Yadav said: “In any alliance, it is always the bigger party that has to make the first move. It was their duty (to approach the JD-U).”
Recalling the history of JD-U-BJP alliance in Karnataka, he said: “In 1999 we contested 90 seats, in 2004 just 25.” He refused to specify how many seats the JD-U wanted to contest this time.
Admitting that the BJP-JD-U partnership has run into difficulties, BJP general secretary in charge of Karnataka Arun Jaitley said: “We (Jaitley and party leader Ananth Kumar) are waiting here for the JD-U state leaders and are ready to talk to them any time.”
Jaitley also criticised Yadav for speaking to the media. “We are fulfilling our coalition ‘dharma’ by not speaking to our alliance partner through the media.”
The BJP has made it clear that the 136 candidates it announced for the coming Karnataka assembly polls are seats on which it would not brook any JD-U claim.