After pulling out all its ministers from the Karnataka cabinet over the issue of power transfer in the state, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now trying to exert more pressure on the Janata Dal-Secular.
Several BJP legislators feel that time had come to withdraw support and pull down the JDS government in the state. Kumaraswamy, officially, continues to be the chief minister despite the BJP ministers' resignation. The resignation letters, meanwhile, are yet to reach the Governor.
The BJP claims that the JDS may not be handing over the resignations to the Governor so as to delay the evil day. According to BJP MLAs, this situation was favourable for the party and hence they feel they should officially withdraw support from the government.
This demand came up during a party meeting on Friday. The MLAs even demanded that the party push for mid-term polls. They said it would not be possible to go on with the JDS-BJP combination, especially after all the allegations that had been leveled against them.
The BJP MLAs will, however, have to wait one more day, as a meeting of BJP President Rajnath Singh and JDS supremo Deve Gowda is scheduled for Saturday. Sources in both the JDS and the BJP said that nothing concrete will come through after the talks.
At present, both parties are in no mood to give away anything. The BJP also feels that the demands by the JDS are too much and impossible to abide with. The JDS, on the other hand, says the coalition cannot go on unless their demands are met.
Illegal Cabinet:
The BJP has not taken too well the Cabinet meeting convened by Kumaraswamy. The party says that it was not right on part of the JDS to convene a cabinet without them.
Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, however, defends his decision by saying that no one had stopped the saffron party from attending the cabinet meeting.