Karnataka CM sends feelers to BJP-led coalition

NEW DELHI, JULY 13: Efforts to cobble together an anti-Congress alliance in Karnataka have gained momentum with a section of the Janata D...

NEW DELHI, JULY 13: Efforts to cobble together an anti-Congress alliance in Karnataka have gained momentum with a section of the Janata Dal led by Chief Minister J H Patel initiating moves for seat adjustments with the BJP-led coalition.

For several months it was Samata Party chief George Fernandes who had been working relentlessly on Patel to take the plunge but now Prime Minister A B Vajpayee has himself got into the act. Patel revealed in Bangalore that Vajpayee had appealed to him to take a decision soon.

The issue will first be discussed at executive committee meeting of State Janata Dal tomorrow. It will also be part of the agenda of the national executive, meeting here on July 17.

Patel is likely to meet Vajpayee here later this week to discuss the alliance idea which is meant to ensure a one-to-one fight with the Congress. The Congress has a fighting chance of making it to power in the State in a triangular contest.

If the proposal fructifies, the State Janata Dal is bound to split vertically as the other faction led by former PM H D Deve Gowda will strongly oppose it.

For more than a year now, Patel has been under tremendous pressure not only from Fernandes but also from Lok Shakti chief Ramakrishna Hegde to join forces with the BJP-led coalition. Realising that the JD’s chances are bleak if it were to fight the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections on its own, many partymen have also been suggesting that it tie up with the Lok Shakti. Several ministers and legislators are said to be considering moving over to the Lok Shakti in the next few days. Those who did not want to associate themselves with the Lok Shakti or the BJP have joined the Congress in the last few months.

The developments in the State JD are making things difficult for party president Sharad Yadav. He was in Bangalore last week where he met several top leaders. While officially, the party’s stand is one of equi-distance with both Congress and BJP, the State units in Bihar, Orissa and now Karnataka are going ahead with their own alliance plans.

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If in Bihar, senior leader Ram Vilas Paswan wants to forge a broad anti-Laloo front in the company of BJP and Samata Party, in Orissa, a section of the party wants to do business with another of the BJP’s allies, the Biju Janata Dal, to ensure straight contests against the Congress.

Both the political affairs committee and the national executive meets of the party are slated for this weekend when all these issues will be discussed.