It was a day of a series of meetings for the Congress leaders in the capital. The first meeting was held at Chowdaiah Memorial Hall. Again in the evening the leaders met at the same venue. But the leaders decided not to arrive at a “stand” on the development but  keep a “watch as the situation is still fluid”.

A senior leader who participated in the meeting informed that now a rift has developed between Mr H D Kumaraswamy and Mr M P Prakash. Moreover it was not yet known which JD(S) MLAs have extended support to BJP. “Also we want to appraise the Congress high command of the development and go by it’s direction”, the leader added. The Congress leaders have decided to meet again on Sunday to decide on the future course of action.

Taking strong exception to the efforts by the JD(S) and BJP to forge an alliance, Congress leaders remarked that the development smacked of both BJP and JDS leaders’ “lust for power”.

KPCC President Mallikarjun Kharge asserted that it was evident from the new development that both the BJP and JD(S) have no moral values. “After attacking each other in public and damaging the state administration, now again they want to rejoin hands. This shows these leaders have no moral values and principles,” he remarked.
Mr Kharge refuted the allegation that the JD(S) leaders took the initiative to rejoin hands with the BJP in order to pre-empt the attempt by Congress to split the JD(S).

‘No attempts’
“We have time and again stated that we are for elections and we never made any attempt to split the JD(S). We never invited JD(S) Leader M P Prakash to hold talks,” he added.

On the statement by Mr Prakash that he had received a green signal from the Central leaders for forming a coalition government, Mr Kharge shot back, “Where is the high command? Sonia Gandhi has gone to China”.

Describing the development as “shameful”, Leader of the Opposition in Council H K Patil said that this has made the people of state to bow their heads.  “In the entire country Karnataka politicians had a fair reputation. But this development has tarnished our image,” Mr Patil added.

Terming the development as “shocking”, senior Congress leader and former Speaker Ramesh Kumar observed that this would further erode the image of politicians in the public eye.

When asked what action the Governor should take, Mr Ramesh Kumar observed that he should act according to the Constitution. “The Governor should send a report on the prevailing situation to the Government of India, which would advise the President on the step to be initiated. The Governor has to obey the direction of President; suo motu he cannot take a decision,” Mr Ramesh Kumar stated.