BJP worried over revival of JD (S)-Congress alliance in Karnataka

The reported meeting between former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda and Congress President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi recently has triggered speculations over the revival of JD (S)-Congress alliance in Karnataka, much to the chagrin of BJP.

The BJP, which is looking forward to taking over the mantle of Chief Ministership from H D Kumaraswamy in October this year in accordance with the power-sharing arrangement between JD (S) and BJP, was quick to threaten a mid-term polls to the Karnataka Assembly if the JD (S) does not hand over power to BJP as scheduled.

“If the JD (S) does not hand over power to us after its tenure of twenty months, we will seek a fresh mandate from the people”, BJP’s Karnataka unit President Sadananda Gowda told reporters in the wake of the widespread speculation over Gowda’s game-plan to deny BJP the Chief Minister’s post.

Gowda’s “clandestine” meeting with Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi recently, ostensibly to discuss the Cauvery issue, has sent alarm bells ringing in the BJP, particularly after JD (S) Ministers including Forest Minister C Chennigappa confirmed the JD (S) supremo’s call on the Congress President.

In view of the heightened concern in the BJP camp, Gowda was forced to issue a clarification that he had never met the Congress President Sonia Gandhi since 2005 over the Cauvery issue. Dismissing the reported meeting as a “figment of imagination”, Gowda turned his ire against the media for “tom-tomming” a “fictitious” meeting.

But, in the same breath, Gowda said he had never blessed the present JD (S)-BJP coalition in Karnataka, which had been formed without his consent. Naturally, Gowda said, he had no role in the arrangement of a midstream change of guard. The JD (S) supremo also said the changeover would be decided by the coalition partners, who had formed the Government.

Apart form the BJP, Gowda’s reported meeting with Sonia Gandhi had also sent jitters to Gowda’s friend-turned-foe and former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who quit the JD (S) and joined the Congress. The development comes at a time when Siddaramaiah is busy feathering his nest in the Congress.