'Do not think PM wants to destabilise coalition govt in Karna'

Bengaluru: Senior JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda Monday said he did not think Prime Minister Narendra Modi wished to destabilise the ruling coalition in Karnataka but sought to know whether BJP Chief Amit Shah was guiding the state unit to do so.

“Whether the party President (Shah) is guiding them or…I don’t think the Prime Minister wants to destabilise he has got some responsibility,” Gowda told reporters here.

However, attempts were being made by the BJP’s state unit under the leadership of its Chief B S Yeddyurappa, the JD(S) supremo alleged.

“…BJP is a national party, if the state party (unit) is moving forward, in other words it means they have the permission of the central party.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “the state unit normally…the leader of the opposition and the party (state) president (Yeddyurapa) who was there for three days as Chief Minister, naturally he has been hurt, having lost the gaddi (seat) of Chief Minister in three days, so it is natural…” 

Yeddyurappa, the leader of the single largest party, took over as Chief Minister following the May 2018 polls that threw up a hung verdict.

But with defeat staring him in the face, he announced his decision to quit on the floor of the Assembly during the May 19 floor test.

Gowdas comments gains significance as several coalition leaders, including Coordination Committee chief and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, had charged Modi along with Shah with trying to destabilise the coalition government, as they fear getting just three our four seats in the coming Lok Sabha polls.

“Not only state leaders of BJP, central leaders of the party, including Modi, Shah and central Ministers were involved in attempts to destabilise the coalition government,” he had alleged soon after the recent Congress Legislature Party meeting, amid alleged attempts by BJP to poach its MLAs.

Stating that the coalition government was in a ‘coma’, BJP had expressed doubts whether Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy would even present his government’s second budget on February 8.

Senior BJP leader and former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashoka had claimed that 20 to 25 disgruntled MLAs of the alliance were out of reach of their leaders.