That did not happen. There was no move from the Congress. On the contrary, the Manmohan Singh Government, acting quickly on Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s recommendation, brought the State under President’s rule with clear intentions to dissolve the assembly and pave way for fresh elections.

Just as Gowda learnt of the Centre’s decision to bring the State under President’s rule as the first step towards dissolution of the assembly Tuesday morning he had an unexpected telephone call from AICC general secretary incharge of state Congress affairs Pritviraj Chavan. No, it was not for proposing a renewed tie-up. “He thanked me” for ending the Yeddyurappa dispensation, said Gowda.

Open channel
Of course, Gowda was as relieved as the Congress leader to see that the BJP’s first chief minister in the South lasted only a week. The telephonic conversation could be politically significant as it suggests that the two parties will keep a channel of communication open for future contingencies. Gowda, addressing a press conference, was quite confident that even after fresh assembly elections, coalition would be inevitable to govern the state.
Both Gowda and Chavan welcomed the Centre’s decision to seek dissolution of the state assembly after the mandatory parliamentary ratification of the President’s rule.

Chavan, speaking to newsmen in the evening, said holding of fresh elections would be a “good step” to end political instability in the state. 

“It is a good decision to end uncertainty in Karnataka. The state deserves a better government. I appeal to the people of Karnataka to elect a stable government,” Chavan, also the Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office, said.

He dismissed suggestions from the JD(S) quarters that his party had sent feelers to the JD(S) to explore alternative government formation. Neither the Congress high command nor the state Congress leadership favoured revival of ties with the JD(S), he asserted. "We had been demanding dissolution of the House for seeking a fresh mandate," he quipped.

While Gowda, at a press conference during the day, sought to puncture BJP’s bid to project itself as a victim of JD(S) political machinations, Chavan asserted that there won’t be any ‘sympathy factor’ in favour of the BJP. Not after it returned to the JD(S) bearing all humiliations just to grab power. The Congress would expose the BJP’s hankering for power as the party would seek a clear mandate to rule the state, Chavan said.

'GOWDA’S Mou claims all lies'
New Delhi, DHNS: The central leadership of the BJP has described as “lies” the assertions of H D Deve Gowda that it was the BJP which first initiated the MoU precedent.

Gowda on Tuesday released here a stamp paper document titled “Terms of coalition as agreed upon on October 27, 2007” with signatures of Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswamy. Asked to react to the Gowda’s assertion, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said, “It is a white lie”. JD(S) has bared itself before the nation with its president exhibiting “the worst kind of coalition behaviour”. When quizzed whether the party had indeed drafted the three-page MoU before Gowda came out with his own, Javadekar said, “Never.”

The BJP is expected to review the situation in Karnataka and chalk out an “agitational” path; against the “betrayal”.