The strains in the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) relationship deepened on Monday with JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda talking of elections in Karnataka and convening his party's National Executive on February 8 to chalk out the future course of action.
A day after his meeting with Bharatiya Janata Party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee, which fuelled speculation, he told reporters that a review of relationship with Congress does not necessarily mean going with BJP for forming a government 'but may be going back to the people with elections'.
Reacting to Gowda's statement, Chief Minsiter N Dharam Singh said the state was not going to polls immediately but the Congress is prepared to face them whenever they come.
Gowda's comments assume significance in the context of ruptures in the Congress-JD(S) alliance after the Congress high command's decision to leave it to the state unit to possibly tie up with rebel JD(S) leader Siddaramaiah in the post-Zilla Parishad poll situation.
"There is some sort of deviation from the understanding we had when we formed the coalition government. This is cleatr when those people who have been expelled for indispline and for destablising my party enter into understandings with the Congress in some districts," Gowda said.
Upset with Congress reportedly being in favour of striking an alliance with Gowda's arch rival Siddaramaiah after the Zilla Panchayat elections, which threw a hung verdict, Gowda said the new situation would be discussed in the party forum of district presidents and district office bearers and then at the National Executive on February 8.
The chief minister, on the other hand, said, "Everything will be sorted out. The coalition government will continue in Karnataka. After all, it is a coalition government and small hiccups will be there."
He said it was the decision of the Congress High Command to give full freedom to the state unit on alliances and he would talk to the party leadership.
Gowda said that he would meet Sonia Gandhi after the National Executive, 'because when we formed the coalition, I told her, if there is any strained relationship in future in the coalition, I will come and report to her. There is some strain now'.
Gowda said he had never attacked Sonia, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or the chief minister 'despite suffering humiliations'
"Even today, there is no strained relationship between me and Dharam Singh. But when the Congress high command has taken some decision, what can Dharam Singh do," he said, apparently venting his anger on the Congress high command for trying to forge an alliance with the Siddaramaiah-led party.
Asked whether JD(S) would tie-up with BJP in the state, Gowda, who met former prime minister and senior BJP leader Vajpayee, said, "The question does not arise of having have any coalition with the BJP."
He said the Congress-JD(S) coalition was to keep BJP at bay and check its growth in the state.