With Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s batting in the Twenty20 power game between JD (S) and BJP coming to an end, the special relationship is under strain. There is a temporary freeze on the political bantering by Kumaraswamy and his deputy B S Yediyurappa. Instead, political maverick H D Deve Gowda has taken centre stage and is offering to hold a “thrashing it out” session with BJP's Central leadership before October 3, the deadline for power transfer.
Gowda’s seismic shift to mediator role, from feeling low over son-turned-CM Kumaraswamy not consulting him before signing the power pact with BJP, is accompanied by public reaffirmations of the strength of his son’s game. He claims a majority of MLAs, including some from BJP, are with Kumaraswamy and want him to continue as CM and not Yediyurappa; that the numerous people's welfare programmes initiated by Kumaraswamy can be completed only if he is the CM; BJP should practise Rajadharma (norms of righteous rule for Kings) to be worthy of power transfer, etc.
The cooling of the special relationship between the coalition partners is no surprise as their’s was never a rocking marriage. One-upmanship, controversies, ego trips and power mongering dominated these last 20 months, leaving no space or time for either a honeymoon or a stable relationship.
As an opening salvo, JD (S) fiercely criticised the previous S M Krishna dispensation for its “indiscriminate” land allotment to IT companies, especially Infosys, and demanded  an audit of how many jobs they generated and the share of local people in them. Next, guns were trained on Infosys chief mentor N R Narayan Murthy, questioning his role as chairman of Bangalore International Airport Limited. He resigned feeling slighted.
Later, Bangalore Metro Rail project was cried to a temporary halt, describing it as an intrusive, expensive, power and time guzzling scheme that would land Karnataka in total “financial, environmental and social chaos”. Deve Gowda dashed off letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and then Chief Minister Dharam Singh, calling for a dispassionate review. The project took off after much ado. Now, the credit “belongs” to JD (S).
Soon after, the Rs 150 crore mining pay-offs scam involving the CM and two JD (S) ministers was unearthed, by BJP’s own MLC G Janardhana Reddy (now suspended). The episode took several twists before the Government’s probe into the charges, entrusted to U L Bhat  Commission initially, has ultimately landed in Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s lap after the Commission’s request for CBI assistance and term extension was denied. Reddy released a couple of CDs purportedly containing evidence of his charges. He is now busy fighting his own battle against land grab charges in Bangalore and other cases related to his mining wealth.
A more recent controversy relates to Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) expressway project between Bangalore – Mysore. The issue – “NICE” Kheny, the company’s head honcho, managed a sale deed for the completed portion of the expressway, upstaging the State Government by taking advantage of sanctions granted by the Krishna government and a Supreme Court order. After much fretting and shunting of officials, the Government moved the apex court for permission to dump NICE and start anew with a US firm. Kheny’s not so nice response  promises more legal wrangles and a speedy death for the speedway, at least for now.
The latest tremor has been the
removal and reinstatement of Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation Chairman Anwar Manippady, a BJP appointee. A stinker to  CM highlighting irregularities in the free borewell scheme, in many districts including the CM’s home-district Hassan, did him in. In the blink of an eye, Anwar was gone. Of course Yediyurappa brought him back but Deve Gowda is still ranting.
With urban local body polls round the corner, there is yet another score to settle between the coalition partners. JD (S) minister Iqbal Ansari’s wager at the recent Ullal by-election that 30 BJP MLAs were ready to join Dal, is being taken seriously by the BJP. The BJP bet is to win at least 25 of the 31 seats in Gangavati, the constituency of Ansari, in the ULB polls.
Thus, the coalition Government trundles on. Though dubbed as a three-in-one Government of corruption, family politics and communalism, a major blessing has been its financial stability as a result of the Value Added Tax regime introduced by the Krishna Government and implemented by Siddaramaiah during the JD(S)-Congress regime. But the merely two-party coalition Government failed to effectively channelise the revenue boom.
The BJP’s defeat in this power game is bigger than that of the JD (S), since it is a national party and  the single largest group in the Karnataka Assembly. What former prime minister A B Vajpayee achieved heading a coalition Government with umpteen constituents, the State BJP failed, pairing with a single regional party and a minority partner. Do we need another 20 months of BJP rule for the State?