Karnataka CM rules out resigning
Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel today
ruled his government's resignation or dissolution of the state assembly following the Janata Dal's debacle in the Lok Sabha polls. The Janata Dal could win only three seats, down from the 16 seats it held in previous Lok Sabha.
Talking to newsmen at the Media Centre in Bangalore, he said whoever wanted to topple his government could try to do so during the assembly session he had convened from March 9. He said voting on the governor's address would itself prove to be a test of his Janata Dal government's majority.
Patel had earlier said that he accept moral responsibility for the
party's debacle if it won less than 10 seats. "But that does not
mean I should dissolve the house or resign." he added.
"There is no need form me to resign as the people have given the Janata Dal a mandate to rule the state for five years. Also, the issues concerning the Lok Sabha are different."
When a comparison was drawn to the Ramakrishna Hegde government resigning in after the then Janata Party was trounced in the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, Patel said that the Hegde government was a minority one dependent on the BJP support, and that is why Hegde had resigned.
Patel defended his stand of not resigning on grounds of moral responsibility and countered with the query, "Is there any morality
left in politics anywhere in India?
Patel said the party had been punished for its mistakes. He
attributed the party's poor performance to the internal squabbles within the Janata Dal . "Whenever we were united, we
have performed well and whenever we were divided, the results had
been poor," he added.
The Bharatiya Janata Party had the necessary
infrastructure to encash on the internal problems of the Janata Dal, and it had, said the chief minister.
Referring to a similar debacle to other political parties in other
states such as Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh, he said there was no question of his resigning.
Patel said though he still had cordial ties with
Hegde, he would not interfere in the relation between Hegde and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda.
He pooh-poohed a suggestion of a possible exodus from the Janata
Dal to the Lok Shakti. No one will go from the party," he declared.
Meanwhile, the Janata Dal cup of woes overflowed when it failed to win a single seat in the byelections for three assembly seats held along with general polls.
In Kottur, Congress candidate T Bhagirathi Marula Siddanagoud, wife of late Marulasiddana Gouda (who had won in 1994) defeated her nearest Lok Shakti rival M M J Swaroopananda by over 9,000 votes in the multicornered contest. The ruling Janata Dal nominee B Nagaraj finished a poor third.
The Congress won its second seat when Sashidar Rudrappa
Ambadakatti was declared elected from Dharwad Rural, defeating his nearest Janata Dal rival A B Desai by a margin of over 2,400 votes. The seat was held by the Congress earlier.
In Anekal, where the byelection was caused by the death of BJP
deputy leader Y Ramakrishna, party nominee A Narayanaswamy won by over 29,000 votes against his nearest Congress rival M P
Keshwamurthy.
|