Economic Times
Bangalore, Sep 30: In the cat-and-mouse game between Karnataka's ruling coalition partners over the transfer of power, BJP seems to have made up its mind to sacrifice its tourism minister B Sriramulu as part of the price to persuade JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda to resume talks.
Sriramulu, who caused a political storm by accusing Gowda's chief minister son H D Kumaraswamy of conspiring to murder him during the run-up to Friday's state-wide civic polls, rushed to the city from Bellary on the summons of the state BJP leadership to tender his resignation as a minister.
The resignation letter addressed to the chief minister was handed over to BJP legislature party leader and deputy chief minister B S Yediyurappa in the evening.
Apart from submitting the resignation letter, Sriramulu has also clarified that he had not lodged any criminal complaint with the police over the attempt to murder but had only submitted a petition against the chief minister's political secretary Suryanarayana Reddy and other JD(S) leaders.
In order to ensure that he does not remain a bone of contention in the power-sharing, he has also declared that he would not to be part of the JD(S)-BJP coalition ministry even after Kumaraswamy relinquishes the chief ministership to BJP's deputy chief minister B S Yediyurappa during the next 20 months.
With this, BJP senior vice president Yeshwant Sinha, who had flown to the city to take stock of the situation and pave the way for resuming the dialogue with Gowda over power transfer, said: "We have created a congenial atmosphere for holding discussions and sort out any problems. The dialogue can be resumed on Sunday morning or on any other date and time convenient to Mr Gowda."
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