Agencies
Bangalore, Jan 19: BJP and JDS legislators plan to stage a dharna in Raj Bhavan on Thursday in protest against the continuance of the Dharam Singh government "even after losing majority", BJP leader B S Yediyurappa said.
Legislators of both parties would also boycott the governors’ address to the joint session of the legislature on Thursday morning, Yediyurappa, who is the opposition leader in the Assembly, said.
He said BJP leaders, including senior leader Venkaiah Naidu, would also join them in the dharna.
Yediyurappa said the government had lost the "moral right" to continue in office and the dharna was in protest against the "governments attitude and the chief minister’s attitude".
The Congress-JDS coalition government is on the brink of collapse after the JDS faction led by H D Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister and JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda, withdrew support to it on Wednesday.
Naidu told reporters that they would urge the governor, T N Chaturvedi, not to address the joint session, as it was not his "personal address and it is prepared by the cabinet which has lost its majority".
He said, therefore, there was no meaning in going ahead with the governors address.
Naidu said if the governor insisted that he wanted the trial of strength, "we are willing to prove our strength on the floor of the assembly". But the "first agenda" should be the trial of strength and not the governor’s address.
Naidu said the contention that Deputy Chief Minister M P Prakash still continued to be the leader of the JDSLP did not hold good as more than three fourth of the JDS MLAs had elected Kumaraswamy as their leader and it had not been disputed by the other side. Also, both BJP and JDS had elected him.
Naidu said the government had clearly lost the majority and added that there was no constitutional crisis, but only a political crisis.
He charged that the Congress wanted to "drag on for some more time".
Asked if "given the track record" of Congress to use the governors office to "subvert" the democratic process, it would do so in the present case also, he said, the Congress would always try to use the governor’s office. "There is no doubt about it. There are so many examples".
He, however, said they were confident that the Karnataka governor would go by the rules and the Constitution.
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