Poaching in the air? Parties resort to Eagleton hideaway
Mr Kumaraswamy spoke to reporters and said both the parties would meet the governor and ask him to invite them to form the government.
Bengaluru: JD(S) state chief H.D. Kumaraswamy and outgoing Congress chief minister Siddaramaiah and possible deputy chief minister G. Parameshwar met late on Tuesday night to finalise the contours of the coalition dharma, sources in the party said, but more importantly have set aside five years of rancour to forge a deal.
After former AICC president Sonia Gandhi voluntarily extended unconditional support to H.D. Kumaraswamy, the leaders sat for discussion on whether the coalition government should have a deputy chief minister or not and addressed the issue of portfolio allocation issue. However, the main discussions revolved around the legal recourse that the leaders should adopt if Governor Vajubhai Vala did not invite the coalition partners to form the government.
To begin with the Congress leaders, aware of the bad blood between the JD(S) leader and the Congress chief minister, advised Mr Kumaraswamy against continuing to hold any bitter feelings against the Congress. The Congress leaders cited the case of Mr Siddaramaiah who once was a bitter critic of the Congress party and later on joined the Congress party, and became the chief minister. The leaders advised Mr Kumaraswamy to forgive the bitterness created during the poll campaign and not hold Mr Siddaramaiah's vow in public rallies saying, “I am taking a vow on his father, Mr Kumaraswamy would not become the CM.”
Sources said that instead of the BJP poaching their legislators, the Congress and JD(S) were in discussion on how to poach the BJP legislators.
"We will identify the weaklings and make them resign from the BJP" , sources said.
Emerging out of the meeting, former chief minister, Siddaramaiah squashed all speculation that five of their winning candidates, all Lingayats said to be upset over BJP chief B.S. Yeddyurappa being denied a chance to become chief minister were planning to jump ship and join the BJP.
"This is far from the truth, its fiction," Mr Siddaramaiah said, adding that the Congress was backing Mr Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) for chief minister.
Standing next to each other in a clear show of unity, he also said both Congress and JD(S) would meet separately on Tuesday night and pass resolutions to install a JD-S led government in the state. After which the resolutions passed by the two parties would be handed over to the governor.
The Governor would be once again be requested to follow the recent Supreme Court ruling which had said that the single largest party need not be invited to form the government, if the coalition of parties crossed the halfway mark.
Mr Kumaraswamy spoke to reporters and said both the parties would meet the governor and ask him to invite them to form the government.
When asked how he joined hands with the Congress after saying that the party would not join hands with two national parties and when he was reminded him of bitter criticism made by Mr Siddaramaiah, Mr Kumaraswamy downplayed the bitter criticism of Mr Siddaramaiah saying, that "bygones were bygones, it is all part of the election campaign."
Reports by Bhaskar Hegde, Bala Chauhan, Shyam Sundar Vattam, B. Aravinda Shetty, Vinay Madhav, N.B. Hombal