Bengaluru: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who moved a motion of confidence on his government in the Legislative Assembly on Friday and won it with a show of hands when the BJP staged a walkout, hours after the BJP had also stood down from contesting the Speaker's election, bore the full brunt of BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa's ire when the two leaders, coalition partners during their last stint in power in 2006 sparred on the floor of the House, exchanging accusations and viciously running each other down.
The new leader of the opposition BSY, warned the Congress to be careful of the 'Appa-Maga', the father -son party as he described the JD(S), recalling his 20 month association with it as "the biggest mistake of his life".
In comments that show the BJP has made a strategic shift to break the coalition by attacking the JD(S) and not the Congress, the BJP leader toned down his attack on former chief minister Siddaramaiah and senior Congress leader, D K Shivakumar, to take aim at JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and HDK.
HDK who took the floor first, dismissed the BJP's argument that it was customary for the Governor to invite the single largest party to form the government, noting that during the last one year, many governments were formed in the country ignoring the single largest party. Even in Goa, the single largest party was Congress, but the Governor did not invite it to form the government, he pointed out.
"I should thank the Supreme Court, which asked Mr Yeddyurappa to prove his majority within a day. We don't know what would have happened if more time was given,'' HDK added in a jibe at the BJP's sustained attempts to get Congress and JD(S) legislators to cross over.
Reacting to the BJP's counter allegations of "resort politics," against the Congress and his party, Mr Kumaraswamy recalled that both the saffron party and the JD(S)'s legislators were also holed up in a resort when their coalition government was formed in 2006. "Now BJP leaders are sympathetic to our legislators, saying they were held captive," he noted caustically.
