By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to wait a little longer to see its first chief minister in south India, with the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) still in two minds on propping a BJP government in Karnataka.
Noticing that JD-S president and former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his son and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were speaking in different voices, Governor Rameshwar Thakur has been delaying sending his report seeking revocation of the President’s rule in the state imposed on Oct 9.
JD-S general secretary and spokesman Kunwar Danish Ali told IANS that his party stood by Deve Gowda’s insistence that the BJP would have to sign a 12-point agreement if it needed to form a government.
He said Kumaraswamy offered a letter of support to the BJP only to “save our party” because the Congress under trying to woo JD-S legislators.
“The JD-S stands by the 12-point memorandum of understanding (MoU) that our president Deve Gowda has mentioned in his letter to the BJP,” he said.
Deve Gowda had sent a letter to BJP president Rajnath Singh listing his 12 conditions including a signed endorsement that “JD-S is not an alliance partner of the BJP”, said Ali.
This flies in the face of BJP state leader B.S. Yedyurappa’s claims that Kumaraswamy was extending unconditional support to the BJP.
BJP vice president Yeshwant Sinha, who is looking after the party affairs in Karnataka, told IANS that he was not aware of the BJP legislators’ plan to visit New Delhi to meet President Pratibha Patil or any central leader.
It is over a week since the JD-S reversed its decision and extended support to the BJP on Oct 26. But the governor has not yet invited Yediyurappa to form a government.
Piqued by the governor’s delay, BJP leaders first met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and later held a protest in Bangalore but hurriedly ended it Sunday when the governor chided them for holding a sit-in in a public place.
The JD-S had stayed away from the BJP’s agitation.