Newindpress

Bangalore, Sep 17: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy are caught in a dilemma on transferring power to the BJP. While the father is haunted by his bitter past, the son is more worried about his future political career.

Gowda feels that his son could be pushed to the wall once he steps down to make way for a BJP leader to take over the reins of administration. His belief stems from past experience on how he himself was side-lined by the Janata Dal after stepping down as Chief Minister by the very same men who rallied behind him when he was in power.

On the contrary, Kumaraswamy who is a first time legislator and still has long years of political life, feels that he may "lose credibility forever" if he fails to keep his promise of handing over power to the BJP as per the understanding with its state leaders before forming the government.

Though Kumaraswamy is confident of reinvigorating the party by touring the State after relinquishing the Chief Minister's post, his father is not fully convinced that Kumaraswamy alone can contain the BJP and the Opposition Congress by staying outside the government.

The fear that his son could be marginalised by the seasoned Congress and BJP leaders by creating fissions within the JD(S) has made Gowda chalk out alternate plans to initiate steps towards retaining Kumaraswamy as Chief Minister for the full term.

Though it is highly unlikely that the BJP would agree to such a proposal, Gowda is said to have made up his mind to discuss the issue with senior leaders--Atal Behari Vajapayee, L K Advani and Rajnath Singh later this month, much against his son's wishes.

"This government was formed after an understanding with local BJP leaders. Why should we drag BJP national leaders into the issue. Any move to stick to power could jeopardise my political career," the Chief Minister is said to have told his father during their visit to New Delhi last week, thus making it clear that he would stick to the promise made to the BJP.

A credible source close to Gowda, sounded optimistic that a mechanism would be worked out to ensure that Kumaraswamy continue to have some sort of power even after relinquishing the post.