Within three days of swearing-in its first chief minister in the south, the BJP finds itself in trouble with ally JD(S) acting tough and cosying up to the Congress in Karnataka.BJP’s B S Yeddyurappa was sworn in as CM with four ministers on Monday but the JD(S), which has not joined the government yet, has set conditions for voting in favour of the government on November 19 when it seeks a trust vote in the Assembly. JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda has met Congress leaders Prithviraj Chavan and P R Dasmunsi, sending out signals that he may be willing to do business with the Congress again. The Congress, it’s learnt, has asked Gowda to first stop JD(S) MLAs from joining the Yeddyurappa cabinet.Gowda was not very happy about the formation of the JD(S)-BJP government and had kept away from the swearing-in ceremony. Congress sources told The Indian Express that the party would use any further confusion that may arise in Karnataka to get the Assembly dissolved. Gowda had set 12 conditions for being part of the BJP-led government. The BJP chose to sit on it but the JD(S) wants a response before the government faces the vote. Yeddyurappa will hold consultations with BJP leaders in Delhi on Friday to firm up the party’s response. Gowda’s 12 demands, if met, will make his son Kumaraswamy a ‘super CM’ who could even control transfer and posting of officials. The BJP insists that the coalition will be guided by the original agreement between the two parties when they came together in January 2006. As per the pact, the partners were to swap their respective portfolios after 20 months.“We could accommodate minor changes, but the fundamental aspects cannot be changed,” a BJP leader said. He said the situation in Karnataka is “changing by the hour and nothing can be said about the longevity of the government.”
