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Bangalore: Congress, JD(S) Try Hard to Thwart BJP

  •   Sat, Oct 27 2007 08:22:39 AM

Times of India

Bangalore, Oct 27: Congress and JD(S) leaders sans the Deve Gowda clan closed ranks on Friday and worked overtime towards forming a government with one objective: keep the BJP out. 

The exercise in both camps centred around cobbling together the numbers to stake claim for the government. It is learnt that some Congressmen who had publicly opposed a reunion with the JD(S) have come around as Gowda is out of the picture until now. 

Though senior JD(S) leader M P Prakash, who has taken up the cause of his party MLAs, has the numbers for a simple majority, the cause of concern is how not to attract the provisions of the Antidefection Act. Of the 57 JD(S) MLAs, eight owe allegiance to former DyCM Siddaramaiah, 13 are Lingayats (like Prakash), 23 are Vokkaligas and the rest belong to other castes. 

A key player in the power game, Prakash will need to wean away 39 JD(S) MLAs (two-thirds of the party’s total strength) for a formal split in the party. This seems to be an uphill task as the majority of Vokkaligas have won from constituencies in the Old Mysore region, which is Gowda’s stronghold and probably won’t desert him. 

In a telephonic chat, Prakash reportedly told Siddaramaiah of his difficulty in reaching the magic number of 39. Siddaramaiah is said to have asked him to work toward the 25 number and the rest would be taken care of. 

In the Kumaraswamy camp, sheer arithmetic jugglery was at work. The faceoff between Prakash and him kickstarted the numbers game with both trying to muster support from the MLAs to steal a march over the other. 

While Prakash liaised with MLAs prior to his departure to New Delhi in the evening to carry forward his talks with Congress national leaders on government formation, Kumaraswamy spent the day chalking out strategies to thwart poaching. 

However, it appears to be a daunting task for Prakash as both Kumaraswamy and Gowda are in no mood to let go of the party reins. A desperate Kumaraswamy has begun to whip up the Vokkaliga sentiment to prevent his loyalists from crossing over. It was quite evident when Kumaraswamy’s aide and key Vokkaliga leader N Cheluvarayaswamy held talks with Prakash at his residence in the morning. Though Prakash reportedly suggested Cheluvarayaswamy back him in his efforts, the latter did not commit himself one way or the other. 

Cheluvarayaswamy tried to paint a clean picture of the party to reporters by stating there were no signs of dismemberment. Prakash’s move to hold parleys with the Congress should not be construed as defiance, Cheluvarayaswamy said, and blamed political rivals for trying to portray the party in bad light. 

Prakash met Congress leader Ahmed Patel late on Friday night.

  

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Title: Bangalore: Congress, JD(S) Try Hard to Thwart BJP



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