BANGALORE: As the Congress and the BJP leaders are using nocturnal parleys and friendly visits to small and regional party leaders to strike new alliances to stack up the required numbers to capture Delhi, there is a silent coup of sorts happening in Karnataka.
Rumours of attempts to dislodge the first-ever BJP government headed by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa got their “stamp of credibility’’ a couple of days ago, with former CM H D Kumaraswamy’s “secret visit’’ to 10 Janpath.
Sources say Kumaraswamy, during his second meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi, is said to have discussed the issue of toppling the BSY government “if the UPA bounces back.” And it got more credence on Friday when senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said “the future of the BJP government in Karnataka would become uncertain if the UPA retains power at the Centre’’.
Not just that, he went a step ahead and declared JD(S) supremo and former PM HD Deve Gowda as his leader and said he “was ready to take the responsibility to become CM if the party high command offered it to him’’.
Transport Minister R Ashok termed these “grand plans’’ as “day dreaming by fools’’ and assured that the government was stable. He mocked at Kumaraswamy for covering his face before entering Sonia’s house and called the Congress a “dead party’’.
It is, however, not clear how the JD(S) and the Congress would manage to topple the BSY government which is comfortably placed — it has 115 seats in the 225-member Assembly. The simple majority figure stands at 113.
Sources said Kumaraswamy was not in favour of forming the government as he hardly has a chance of either heading the next coalition or becoming part of the new dispensation.
As a result, Kumaraswamy, who is hoping to become a Union Minister, is keen to dislodge the BJP in the state by clamping President’s Rule and going for a fresh mandate on the basis of the work done by the UPA government and himself as a Minister.
On the other hand, JD(S) MLAs are keen on an alliance with the Congress so that they get to complete the term.
That would also help H D Revanna become deputy CM, sources said.