Bengaluru: The divisions in the Congress-JD (S) coalition government which could come to a head before the assembly meets for the key budget session in the first week of February will see several rebel Congress legislators who are being wooed by the BJP, readying to quit their membership of the Legislative Assembly rather than voting against the budget, which would invite disqualification for six years.
Unless of course, the JD(S) which has threatened to quit the coalition rather than face the Congress' daily attacks, brings the government down before the BJP makes its move.
High level sources in Congress said the coalition, with a composite strength of 118 MLAs, has five legislators more than the magic number of 113 required to remain in office. But with exactly five MLAs ready to resign, and " "the BJP trying hard to get some more (MLAs)," sources said that the coalition was on precarious ground. Two independents withdrew support to the coalition earlier this month.
Originally, the five legislators, who have kept in constant touch with the top brass of BJP, were planning to stay away during voting on a no confidence motion of the BJP. They reportedly changed tack in the light of suggestions by legal and experts on the Constitution that they could face the prospect of disqualification for six years. The advice by leading constitutional experts is that legislators should quit, preferably before the budget session and thus reduce the government to a minority.
The JD(S)-Congress feud lies in the long-standing rivalry between leaders of the coalition partners, in particular in Mandya, Mysuru, Hassan and Tumakuru, which strikes at the very heart of the inherent weakness of the eight month-old government, even though, in public, leaders of both parties continue to harp on a seat-sharing pact ahead of Lok Sabha polls. Congress leaders, are determined to deny JD (S) leaders from gaining the upper hand in securing seats in the Old Mysore region and have been issuing statements laced with acerbic remarks against Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his father and JD (S) president H D Deve Gowda.
Leaders of JD (S), too have another axe to grind with Mr Siddaramaiah for not announcing the common minimum programme (CMP) of the coalition in his capacity as chairman of the coordination committee.
Sources said while some leaders including KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao and deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwar are trying to stop their party colleagues from rocking the government, others are using every opportunity to needle JD (S) leaders to provoke the party into walking out of the coalition.
As JD (S) leaders have already wrecked two coalition governments-the earlier one was headed by late Mr N Dharam Singh followed by another with Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister, the third would not be out of character, the source said. The second strategy is to force JD (S) hand into to joining hands with BJP for the rest of tenure and escape anti-incumbency during next Assembly polls, sources said.
Mr Gowda, who took potshots at his bête noire and chairman of the coordination committee, Mr Siddaramaiah while addressing party workers on Thursday, reportedly told Mr Gandhi that his party was forced into pleading with Congress legislators not to criticize the style of functioning of the government headed Mr Kumaraswamy. The warnings by Mr Gowda and his son are seen as a reaction to Congress MLA S.T. Somasekhar’s recent remark that Karnataka would have witnessed "real development" if former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had received another term. His party colleague, C Puttarangashetty, went a step further by saying that Mr Siddaramaiah is the only chief minister in his book.
