Bangalore, September 27
Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said today he would step down on October 3 as per the power-sharing accord with the BJP.
Kumaraswamy said that several legislators were in favour of his continuing as Chief Minister till Janata Dal (S)-BJP resolved the power transfer issue.
However, “I don’t want to belittle my image before the public, reneging on my promise. I will step down on October 3,” he said.
While the JD (S) legislators wanted Kumaraswamy to take them into confidence before quitting, BJP MLAs suggested the Chief Minister hold parleys with saffron party leaders.
Karnataka BJP will have to wait for power
Jangveer Singh
Tribune News Service
Bangalore, September 27
Former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda today put himself in the driver’s seat on the eve of the scheduled power transfer by his party, the Janata Dal (Secular), to the BJP in Karnataka by making use of a “transgression” by a BJP minister to suspend power transfer talks scheduled to be held with the BJP central leadership.
Gowda, who had gone to Delhi yesterday to meet the BJP central leadership, returned this morning and announced that he was suspending all talks with the BJP and that now it was up to the BJP and its senior leaders to call him for talks after creating a congenial atmosphere for the same.
The former Prime Minister announced that he could not hold talks in a situation when a senior BJP leader and tourism minister Sriramulu had filed a complaint accusing his son and state Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy of conspiring to eliminate him. The complaint was filed with the Bellary police yesterday by the BJP leader after violence erupted between the BJP and the JD(S) over allegations of electoral malpractice being committed by the BJP.
Gowda has, by this move, put the focus back on himself as well as the need for fulfilling certain “conditions” by the BJP before his son vacates the CM’s chair for senior BJP leader B. S.
Yediyurappa. He hinted that the BJP would have to get tough on Sriramulu, who is close to BJP leader Janardhan Reddy, who had, in turn, accused Chief Minister Kumaraswmay of receiving a bribe of Rs 150 crore from the mine owners of
Bellary. He vented his feelings by saying, “They should set things right. What did they do when their legislator made Rs 150 crore bribery charge against the Chief Minister?”
The former Prime Minister also made it clear that his party would not transfer power to the BJP till “it sorts out the issues in its own house” and then makes the first move to resume talks. “I will go for talks if BJP leaders like Vajpayee and Rajnath Singh call me”, he added. Gowda had gone to Delhi yesterday of his own volition to hold talks with Rajnath Singh and other senior leaders.
