Lotus 2.0: Hectic political activities among coalition partners

Bengaluru, May 24: After receiving a severe drubbing in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections, the JD(S)-Congress leaders are holding series of parleys to decide future course of action.

Senior Congress leaders, including former chief minister Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, and senior Ministers in the coalition government are meeting at the residence of Siddaramaiah and working out strategies to be taken in the event of the Opposition BJP is pressing hard to topple the one-year-old JD(S)-Congress coalition government.

The Congress leaders who were in shock after witnessing one of the worst backlash in the Lok Sabha elections, however, maintained that the verdict in the Lok Sabha should not be seen as against the mandate of the state government.

In his immediate reaction over receiving the drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections, the former chief minister Siddaramaiah, had maintained that the Lok Sabha results was a mandate for Narendra Modi and people have not voted against the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka.

He had also rubbished the demand of the State BJP president B S Yeddyurappa for the resignation of the coalition government owning moral responsibility.

Meanwhile Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had convened an informal meeting of the state Cabinet, today, reportedly to decide the future course of action, in the backdrop of the humiliating defeat of the Alliance partners, the Congress and the JD(S).

According to JD(S) sources, Chief minister H D Kumaraswamy, who was deeply saddened with the political setback in the Lok Sabha elections, in which his son Nikhil was also lost to an independent candidate in Mandya, is reportedly not keen to continue in the office.

He had also convened a meeting of the JD(S) legislators meeting after the Cabinet meeting and take their views on continuing alliance with the Congress, which had been flopped badly.

It may be recalled that both the Congress and the JD(S) which had a pre-poll alliance had fought the Lok Sabha elections jointly, sharing the seats among themselves.

While the Congress had chose to contest in 21 seats, it had allotted as many as 7 remaining seats in Karnataka to its new-found political ally JD(S).

When the results were announced both the Congress and the JD(S) had to content with bagging one seat among themselves, in the total number of 28 Lok Sabha seats.

The Congress and the JD(S) had formed the government in 2018 May, with alliance, as no parties got clear majority, and the Opposition BJP had emerged as the single largest party by bagging 106 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly.

Both the Congress and the JD(S) parties, leaving aside their rivalries had come together for the first time in Karnataka and the JD(S) which had won only 37 Assembly seats had formed the Government with the Congress, which had secured 80 seats in the Assembly elections.