By IANS
Bangalore/New Delhi : The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made up dramatically Saturday after three weeks of war, with JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda announcing support to a BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa.
The move paves the way for the installation of the first BJP chief minister in south India, with the BJP-JD-S combine claiming the support of 126 legislators in the 225-member Karnataka assembly.
In Bangalore, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S met BJP leaders and gave a letter of “unconditional support” for a BJP-led government with Yediyurappa as chief minister, to whom he had refused to hand over the chair on Oct 3 forcing the BJP to withdraw support.
Kumaraswamy later met Governor Rameshwar Thakur along with Yediyurappa and state BJP president D.V. Sadanand Gowda to hand over the letter of support.
In the national capital earlier, JD-S chief and former prime minister Deve Gowda had met BJP national president Rajnath Singh and discussed their mutual differences which had led the BJP to withdraw support and the subsequent resignation of the minority Kumaraswamy-led ministry on Oct 8.
Soon after meeting the governor, Kumaraswamy told reporters outside Raj Bhavan (governor’s official residence) that all 58 JD-S legislators backed the party decision to support a Yediyurappa-led government.
Yediyurappa, who was deputy chief minister in the ministry headed by Kumaraswamy, was present but did not speak.
Kumaraswamy justified the decision to support a BJP-led government claiming the Congress was trying to split his party. He had given the same reason in February 2006 to bring down the Congress-JD-S coalition government formed after the fractured verdict in the assembly polls of May 2004.
He claimed he had the support of his father and party president Deve Gowda.
Deve Gowda had intervened early this month to scuttle power transfer to the BJP, saying the BJP could not be trusted to maintain communal harmony in the state.
In New Delhi, BJP spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said Saturday afternoon that Deve Gowda and Rajnath Singh discussed “old issues in a cordial atmosphere”.
“Today’s support given by the JD-S is unconditional,” he said.
When reminded that the BJP had accused the JD-S of treachery towards the people of Karnataka when it withdrew support, Rudy said: “In politics, there is always a possibility of course correction”.
He said both parties would also contest the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in alliance.
JD-S leaders in New Delhi also blamed the Congress for Saturday’s political developments, alleging that it was trying to split the party and win over a section led by former Karnataka home minister M.P. Prakash to form a Congress-led government.
“Deve Gowda had written to the president and the prime minister urging them to immediately dissolve the Karnataka assembly. But instead of doing that they were busy trying to break our party,” said JD-S general secretary Kunwar Danish Ali in New Delhi.
Incidentally, Prakash and Deve Gowda arrived in the capital Thursday night on the same flight from Bangalore and returned to Bangalore Saturday afternoon on the same flight. But they held no meeting throughout Friday and early Saturday though they were in the national capital.
Danish Ali said, “Had we not moved now, the Congress would have walked away with half of our legislature party and left the other half at the mercy of the BJP.”
JD-S’ Prakash was taken by surprise at the sudden developments. He was waiting in New Delhi for the return of Congress president Sonia Gandhi to seek her approval for government formation in Karnataka. He described his party’s decision to back the BJP as “illegal and unconstitutional”.
He also denied reports that the decision to support the BJP had been endorsed by a meeting of the JD-S legislature party, saying: “If at all some meeting took place it was some individuals’ meeting and not the JD-S party”.
The JD-S leader recalled that sometime back a few party legislators were made to sign on a blank sheet ostensibly to reiterate their opposition to a BJP-led government and apprehended that the same letter may now have been passed on to the governor.
However, he ruled out attempting to split the JD-S and said: “I am not a votary for splitting parties”.
In Bangalore, Kumaraswamy said he would talk to Prakash and “take him along” in endorsing the party’s decision.
Governor Thakur now has to inform the president and get her permission to revoke president’s rule to facilitate installation of the government. He has reportedly decided to seek legal opinion first.
Kumaraswamy was forced to quit Oct 8 after he refused to make way for Yediyurappa as agreed 20 months back. The state was brought under president’s rule and the assembly kept in suspended animation Oct 9.
The BJP has 79 members in the assembly, including one nominated member. The Congress is the second largest party with 65 members. The JD-S has 58 members, though there is a question mark on seven of them who had earlier expressed a desire to join the Congress. Smaller parties and independents make up the rest.