This time, the son lost the chair he had held for the last 20 months and the father had the last laugh.

As the last minute ‘face-saving’ exercise by H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S) on Monday unfolded at Krishna, the home office of the CM, in the afternoon, the party spoke of power transfer to the BJP, which only created more chaos and confusion. Kumaraswamy convening the JD(S) Legislature Party meeting at Krishna added to the confusion.  Interestingly, the State President of the party Merajuddin Patel himself was conspicuous by his absence at the meeting.

It was said that Kumaraswamy would hand over the letter of support to the Governor Rameshwar Thakur, along with his resignation letter. To add to these developments was the arrival of two Volvo buses to ‘Krishna’ (to ferry the party MLAs to Raj Bhavan), re-creating February 2006 scenes when Kumaraswamy had taken all his MLAs in a bus to Raj Bhavan.

But when the CM, at last, left Krishna for Raj Bhavan, he had only his resignation letter in his pocket. The two buses too vanished.

I was ready to extend support to the BJP. I asked all my MLAs to do so. It is now left to the Governor- this is what the CM later told the media about the entire drama. He, however, did not clarify why he did not hand over the letter of support to the Governor.

Conspiracy
According to N Chaluvarayaswamy, a close confidant of the CM, it was because of “conspiracy” of some national BJP leaders and the Congress that the State BJP was deprived of power. However, he also failed to clarify as to what exactly went wrong while extending support to the BJP, if the JD (S) had really planned to do so.

Instead, the CM claimed that some BJP leaders offered him to continue in power for some more months. But, he said, he turned it down and, inturn, offered the JD (S) support to the BJP.

The party insiders said that leaders of both estranged partners, the JD(S) and the BJP, had revived talks on power sharing, following the intervention of two powerful religious mutts. But JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda was, as usual, opposed to any ties with the BJP.

When Kumaraswamy convened JD(S)LP to discuss the new development, high drama prevailed. Sources said that the CM’s elder brother and PWD Minister H D Revanna opposed it and even fell at the feet of his younger brother Kumaraswamy, urging him not to repeat the “mistake”. He even warned Kumaraswamy that he would lose his father if he supported the BJP.

A highly placed source later confirmed that JD(S) patriarch had already suggested to the Governor to recommend President’s rule in the State.