Date:05/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/05/stories/2007110550310100.htm

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BJP, JD(S) MLAs to meet President

Special Correspondent

Kumaraswamy affirms “unconditional” support

Governor prefers fresh letter of support
BJP ends round-the-clock dharna

H.D. Kumaraswamy

BANGALORE: All the 129 legislators from the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal(Secular) from Karnataka will present themselves before President Pratibha Patil in a day or two. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the JD(S) and BJP leaders here on Sunday night. This comes in the wake of the perceived delay by Governor Rameshwar Thakur in inviting BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa to form a government despite the two parties presenting their legislators before him and furnishing letters of support.

A 12-point list of conditions imposed on the BJP by the JD(S) national president, H.D. Deve Gowda, had threatened to become a stumbling block in the process of government formation. The Governor reportedly told a five-member BJP delegation on Sunday afternoon that the party must get a letter from its coalition partner offering “unconditional” support to a BJP-led government.

A senior BJP functionary told The Hindu that the Governor spoke at length on the fresh conditions imposed by the JD (S). His view was that the stability of the coalition government might be affected if it had only “conditional” support from its allies. The BJP delegation immediately drew the Governor’s attention to the statement of the former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, at a press conference earlier in the day affirming his party’s “unconditional” support to the BJP. The Governor, however, preferred a fresh letter of unconditional support, the source said. Following this a hurried meeting was convened between the coalition leaders, where the BJP requested the JD(S) for a fresh letter to submit to the Governor. Mr. Kumaraswamy reportedly declined to do so, arguing that the original letter of unconditional support given by his party in the last week of October was adequate proof of the party’s intent.

According to BJP sources, the Governor said he would send a final report on the political situation in the State to the Centre. The BJP leaders ended their two-day-old round-the-clock indefinite dharna being staged in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Bangalore on Sunday evening following the Governor’s advice.