Click to play videoBangalore: The BJP and JD(S), weeks after they cancelled their coalition in Karnataka, reunited on Saturday and staked claim on forming a new government.
Leaders of both parties told Governor Rameshwar Thakur they wanted to form a government after JD(S) announced that it was ready to back the BJP. "We have decided to submit our letter of support to the Governor to facilitate formation of a BJP-led coalition government," said caretaker chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy.
The JD(S) is ready to back BJP leader B S Yediyurappa, who was Kumaraswamy’s deputy, as the next Chief Minister.
JD (S) spokesperson Y S V Datta told CNN-IBN his leaders decided to back the BJP because the Congress was trying to split their party. "As the Congress is trying to split the JD(S), we have agreed to support the BJP under the leadership of Yediyurappa," said Datta.
JD(S) chief and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda has backed his son, Kumaraswamy, in forming a government with the BJP.
The JD(S)-BJP coalition government fell early October when Kumaraswamy refused to transfer power to Yediyurappa as per the agreement reached between the two parties 20 months ago. BJP ministers quit the government on October 7 and President Pratibha Patil declared Central rule in the state on October 9 after Kumaraswamy resigned.
Senior JD(S) leader cries foul
Kumaraswamy’s offer to patch up with the BJP may have been prompted by the fact that senior JD(S) leader M P Prakash was trying for a tie-up with the Congress.
IANS reports Prakash had met senior Congress leaders in Delhi on Tuesday and claimed to have received a positive response to his efforts to form an alternate Congress-JD(S) coalition government.
Prakash told a press conference in Delhi that the JD-S letter of support has "no validity" and hence the governor should not act on it.
The senior JD-S leader faxed a letter to the governor saying that he was returning to Bangalore Saturday evening and should be heard before the governor took any decision on government formation.
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