Irked over the deadline set by its coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party, the Janata Dal-Secular on Tuesday firmly ruled out the resignation of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy by this 'evening,' deepening the political crisis in Karnataka.
Dealing another blow to the saffron party, the JDS also sought to distance itself from the power-sharing agreement reached 20 months ago between the two parties.
Under the power sharing pact, Kumaraswamy is supposed to demit office on October 3, making way for BJP's B S Yediyurappa to take over chief ministership.
"The agreement was between me and some BJP leaders. There was no understanding between the two parties," Kumaraswamy told media persons, as the JDS continued to drag its feet on the issue.
"These kinds of decisions are taken with patience. We do not want to take the decision in haste," he said.
JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda said the party's political affairs committee meeting in New Delhi on October five will take the final decision on power transfer, and it would be binding on all.
The BJP, meanwhile, stuck to its deadline that Kumaraswamy should tender his resignation to Governor on Tuesday and hand over a letter of support.
"October three is the deadline for power transfer. We will not go back on that," the party's state unit president D V Sadananda Gowda said.
Kumaraswamy and state JDS unit president Mirajuddin Patel also sought to draw a parallel in the power-sharing deal between the People's Democratic Party and Congress, and pointed out that the Congress waited for three months for the former to transfer power to it.
Patel said Kumaraswamy would not resign on Tuesday, adding that the JDS has nothing to do with the power-sharing agreement inked two months ago, as the deal was only between Kumaraswamy and the BJP.
The BJP convened a meeting of its legislature party later in the day to discuss the emerging political situation and take a final view on the future course of action.
In another development, the Congress has also called its Legislature party meeting to discuss the political situation in the state.
Kumaraswamy will be meeting JDS legislators to elicit their views on power transfer to BJP, to which a majority of his partymen are opposed to.
