With the Bharatiya Janata Party deciding to move its Karnataka battleground to Delhi to parade its 105 MLAs before President Pratibha Patil on Tuesday, the Congress core committee, which met on Monday evening, decided to wait and watch the situation and not take any decision in haste.
Sources said that the core committee was of the view that after the HC verdict the Union cabinet would meet and then decide the political course of action on Tuesday.
The Union cabinet, which was earlier scheduled to meet on Monday evening, in now likely to meet on Tuesday, as the high court verdict has been deferred.
The core committee, which met after the arrival of Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee from Washington, DC, while deciding not to act in a hurry, discussed the political equations in Karnataka, but appeared to be clear at this stage that the party was not interested in any tie up with H D Deve Gowda's Janata Dal-Secular.
The overwhelming mood of the core committee, said sources, was that the government should not take any action which would give any political advantage to the BJP, or make the first BJP government in the south as 'martyrs,' which they can encash later.
Pranab Mukherjee is learnt to have told the meeting that the government should wait for the high court order and see its implications as any hasty step could give BJP the advantage even in Bihar, as the party could orchestrate the campaign that its 'duly elected government had been dismissed by the Centre.'
Highly placed sources said that the Karnataka Governor H R Bharadwaj in his report to the Centre has suggested a number of options which the government can examine.
While stating that Karnataka can be placed in suspended animation under President's Rule, the governor has said that the state government can be asked to go in for another trial of strength to prove its majority since the MLAs were not given 7 days notice before their disqualification.
He is learnt to have said that there were 'unruly scenes' in the state assembly with even the MLCs coming into the assembly, and that has made the situation difficult.
Stating the options as a constitutional expert himself, the governor is also learnt to have advised the Centre to wait for the pronouncement of the high court on the fate of the 16 disqualified MLAs, 11 of whom are from the BJP and 5 are independents.
With the Congress leadership clear that it did not want to give the BJP any political advantage, which may be the case if President's Rule is imposed, the Centre has decided to give the BJP and its government in Karnataka time to either get its act together or alternatively to wait and see if more MLAs leave the party wagon, which would further complicate matters for the BJP.
However, final word will be known on the issue when Union cabinet meets on Tuesday. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will have a fresh look on Tuesday on the issue.
The Congress party in its daily briefing however made its position clear, stating that Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yedyurappa was heading a minority government in the state and what had happened in the assembly on Monday was 'the murder of democracy in the temple of democracy.'
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