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B'lore: JDS Keeps Coalition Partner BJP on Tenterhooks

  •   Sun, Nov 18 2007 10:05:51 PM

Agency report
 
Bangalore, Nov 18: The Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Sunday kept its Karnataka coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) guessing on whether it will support it in Monday's trust vote in the state assembly.

On the eve of the trust vote, JD-S leaders and legislators began a series of meetings among themselves to sort out differences in the party and mount pressure on the BJP to sign the Memorandum of Understanding -- involving a decisive role for the JD-S in running the coalition - before the trust vote.

"Our strategy is to wait till the last minute Monday for the BJP to respond and then announce our decision. We hope this strategy will build enough pressure on the BJP to agree to our terms," a senior JD-S leader said.

JD-S legislators are heading to a resort on the city's outskirts later Sunday from where they will go to the assembly Monday morning.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is also holding meetings with senior party colleagues on steps to be taken to tackle the difficult coalition partner. He has called a meeting of his legislators Sunday evening.

Yeddyurappa, who was sworn in as chief minister on Nov 12, has to prove his majority in the 225-member assembly as directed by Governor Rameshwar Thakur.

The BJP has 79 members in the assembly and is being supported by 49 of the 51 JD-S legislators.

However, the coalition is in trouble following the JD-S decision to seek a written commitment from the BJP on terms for its continuing support, despite declaring earlier that its support was unconditional.

The JD-S is describing its terms for support as 'Memorandum of Understanding' and not conditions.

The BJP is divided on signing the MoU.

The party's central leadership and a section in the state is against any written agreement with the JD-S, while Yeddyurappa and his supporters are inclined to save the ministry, a senior BJP leader told IANS requesting anonymity.

The JD-S too is not united on withdrawing support to Yeddyurappa in the event of the BJP refusing to sign the MoU.

A majority of JD-S legislators are against early polls as the assembly still has 19 months left.

This opposition had forced JD-S chief H.D. Deve Gowda and his son and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to go back to the BJP in the last week of October after falling apart with it over power transfer three weeks earlier.

Kumaraswamy is under pressure not to precipitate the issue as that may lead to assembly dissolution and early polls, JD-S sources said. 
 
The See-saw of Karnataka Power Politics !
  

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Title: B'lore: JDS Keeps Coalition Partner BJP on Tenterhooks



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