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Deve Gowda, Patel kiss and make up

The warring Janata Dal factions in Karnataka Wednesday decided to close ranks for the time being to defeat the no-confidence motion in the state legislature.

An exercise to assuage the feelings of the section of party MLAs who revolted against the J H Patel government will also be set in motion, senior JD leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said in New Delhi.

The decisions were arrived at after a meeting Deve Gowda had with Chief Minister J H Patel and former Janata Dal president S R Bommai.

The leaders also decided to hold the crucial JD legislature party meeting on November 13 after the current assembly session following a direction to that effect by party president Sharad Yadav. Yadav himself will attend the JDLP meeting.

Emerging from the hour-long discussion at his residence Deve Gowda said, ''We will defeat the no-confidence motion moved by the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party and work for the party's success in the next year's assembly elections.''

Incidentally, this is the first time Deve Gowda, the spearhead of the dissident campaign, is meeting Patel since the crisis broke out over a month ago. Tuesday's meeting between the two were postponed as Patel was indisposed.

Both Patel and Deve Gowda parried questions whether the leadership issue was still open. ''We have built up the JD in Karnataka and we know what to do,'' the former prime minister said, "We will sort out the issue."

From November 8, Deve Gowda and Bommai will commence an elaborate exercise of meeting party MLAs and ministers to hear their grievances and prepare ground for the legislature party meeting.

UNI

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