Hubballi: In a fresh indication that the Janata Dal (Secular) could support the Yediyurappa government should it fall short of a majority following the byelection results, its senior leader, Basavaraj Horatti said here on Saturday that “others” would come to its rescue in such an event, without naming them.
“Legislators of all three political parties are not willing to go in for fresh Assembly elections at this juncture. Nothing will happen to the government in the state going my political experience. Other political parties will join hands to run the government,” he told reporters in Yadahalli village of Bagalkot district.
“The government will be safe if it wins seven Assembly seats, but will be at risk only if it wins only four or five seats in the byelections. Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa will have to either step down or else forge an alliance with other parties,” he added, claiming that the BJP could also launch another “Operation Lotus” to poach legislators of other parties to make up the numbers it needed to survive in government. Confident that the Janata Dal (Secular) would win at least three assembly constituencies in the byelections, he said he did not fully agree with the exit polls as they did not always prove correct as was evident during the recent Maharashtra assembly elections.
As for the disqualified legislators, Mr Horatti lamented that MLAs would no longer have any fear of the anti-defection law as the Supreme Court had allowed them to contest the byelections although they had quit to bring down the Kumaraswamy government in July.
