BENGALURU: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, as well as the entire Congress party, has singularly accused the BJP, holding it responsible for the trouble in the coalition. The same, however, doesn’t seem to be the opinion of the entire coalition. While Congress Legislature Party chief Siddaramaiah chose to attack Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the crisis, a senior minister from JDS, GT Devegowda, was all praise for Modi, even absolving the BJP of having any role in the ongoing crisis in stark contradiction.
“The recent resignation drama is nothing but a dirty plot by @BJP4Karnataka leaders. People have not given them the mandate for Assembly but they are desperate to gain backdoor entry. If @narendramodi has little self-respect, he should ask his stooges to act constitutionally. (sic)” tweeted Siddaramaiah on Tuesday evening. The coordination committee chairman claimed that he had not been able to contact either of the MLAs who have resigned and is yet to talk to them. Sources close to Siddaramaiah suggest that his focus is currently in ensuring that more MLAs don’t follow suit instead of approaching Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi to woo them. With KPCC Chief Dinesh Gundu Rao flying abroad, working president Eashwar Khandre has taken up the responsibility of reaching out to miffed MLAs.
Meanwhile, GT Devegowda said Modi will never try to destabilise the government. “Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Amit Shah, as we have seen in the last few months, have tried to destabilise any government. Their focus remains development and we are hopeful they will give us a farmer-friendly budget. The BJP has nothing to do with the MLAs submitting their resignation. IT is their personal choice,” G T Devegowda told television channels on Tuesday.
A section of Congress leaders, including Ballari In-charge and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, is keen on wooing Anand Singh to withdraw his resignation as Speaker Ramesh Kumar takes his time to accept the same. For the Congress, Ramesh Jarkiholi does not seem like a priority but stalling the domino effect that the dual resignation may have on the coalition seems to be the task at hand.