Janata Dal-Secular, part of the Third Front, has an 'open mind' if the UPA sought its support, party's Karnataka unit president H D Kumaraswamy, who caused a flutter with his recent hush-hush meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said on Saturday.
"So far, we have not decided on anything. UPA has not sought our support. If UPA seeks it, we have an open mind," Kumaraswamy, who won the Bangalore rural Lok Sabha seat with a huge margin of over one lakh votes, said.
However, he added that at this stage going by the numbers the UPA has, it looks like it does not require the support of smaller parties.
Asked to reveal the nature of discussions he had with Gandhi, Kumaraswamy dismissed it, saying "now it is all irrelevant under the circumstances".
"My first enemy is BJP. If UPA seeks my cooperation to scuttle the growth of BJP, I am willing to extend cooperation," Kumaraswamy told PTI.
He said the JDS was happy with the verdict of Lok Sabha polls in Karnataka, "though it is short of our expectation". JDS won three out of 28 seats, one more than the 2004 tally.
"I had expected my party to win at least six seats. But due to tacit understanding between janata parivar leaders who are in Congress, with the BJP, we could win only three," Kumaraswamy said.
He alleged that BJP managed to win 19 seats by misusing official machinery and flow of money.