Having lobbed the future of the JD(S)-BJP coalition Government into the lap of the BJP, former Prime Minister and JD(S) National President H D Deve Gowda on Friday sat back to monitor reports of polling for the local body elections.Meanwhile, his son Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy continued to give the impression that he was entering the last few days of his tenure.Kumaraswamy has indicated that he would like to resign ahead of the October 3 power transfer date in order to keep his promise to the BJP. He has told JD(S) legislators that it is crucial to his political future that he keeps his word given to the BJP 20 months ago.Speculations are rife that the resignation could be as early as September 30 in case of the JD(S) suffering a royal rout in the local body polls.At a state Government felicitation of former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the Chief Minister reminisced about his village stays, policies of his Government and also called the Friday felicitation a high point of his tenure.BJP Deputy CM Yediyurappa, who earlier in the day had called on the JD(S) to reciprocate the support it had received from the BJP in the last 20 months, was conspicuous by his absence from the function.What is worrying the BJP is the fact that the operative word Kumaraswamy is now using while talking about honouring his word to the BJP is resignation in his personal capacity, and not power transfer from the JD(S) to the BJP.State BJP leaders are apprehensive that a situation is likely to arise in the next couple of days where Kumaraswamy resigns, but the 39 JD(S) MLAs don’t play ball with the 78 BJP legislators in electing Yediyurappa or any BJP member as the new leader of the coalition, thus bringing new Governor Rameshwar Thakur into play and making President’s Rule and elections inevitable.The JD(S) MLAs have already made it known that they will support the continuation of Kumaraswamy as their Chief Minister.Government sources say what the BJP has going for it is the fact that the JD(S) is keen to at least present a ‘dhamaka’ budget in 2008 before going to the polls. The BJP has held the Finance Ministry during Kumaraswamy’s tenure and produced two popular budgets.The JD(S) leadership is keen that Kumaraswamy’s brother H D Revanna who is set to be Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister in case the power transfer occurs, presents a popular election budget, sources said.Another ground reality in favour of the BJP getting a shot at power in South India for the first time is that MLAs cutting across party lines are not in favour of polls when they can afford to be in power for another 20 months.The once bitten Congress has ruled out a re-alliance with the JD(S) and seems likely to play spectator until the Governor comes into the picture.State Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has stated that President’s Rule is inevitable given the situation in the state.
