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Deve Gowda's supporters gird up afresh against J H Patel

A Special Correspondent in Bangalore

Supporters of former prime minister H D Deve Gowda have decided to seek J H Patel's removal as Karnataka's chief minister. The decision was taken late last evening after a meeting of 'some'' legislators in the presence of Deve Gowda's son and former member of Parliament, H D Kumaraswamy.

"The legislators have decided to seek Patel's removal from the leadership of the Janata Dal legislature party. If our demand is not met, we will all resign from the membership of the legislative assembly,'' a spokesman for the dissidents told Rediff on the Net.

"We will decide later as to when we will resign and who we will submit our resignations to,'' said a dissident. Stopping short of taking a 'I-don't-care' stance, Patel said in reaction to the meeting of dissidents: "Let anyone do whatever they want. What is before me is to tone up the administration and strengthen the party.''

A dissident spokesman declined to specify the number of legislators who attended the meeting last evening. One source claimed it was 36, but there was no confirmation.

The dissidents require about 15 members to bring down the government, a factor that clearly worries the chief minister's camp.

"It does not worry Patel, though. He is really fed up of this perpetual threat. He is prepared to go to the people and expose Deve Gowda's habit of splitting the party, whenever he is not in power,'' said a cabinet minister, who did not want to be identified.

The legislative assembly has a membership of 225. Out of which, two seats are vacant. The ruling party requires 111 members for a simple majority.

The Janata Dal has 112 members of its own and is supported by 11 Independents who are treated as associate members, totalling 123.

The dissidents require 37 members to effect a split in the party. If they fall short of that number, they may resign from the assembly, bringing down the government.

But some of Patel's supporters do not expect the Deve Gowda camp to muster up that much of strength. "You see, the transfer season is coming up and this is an election year. The legislators would not like to lose out on such lucrative situations,'' said a Patel supporter.

All this, however, does not minimise the threat. The other possibility is that Deve Gowda would utilise this threat to force a decision on the party's national leadership to change Patel.

If he fails, he might get back into the position holding at bay the hawks in his camp and negotiate a deal with Patel in which he has more say in the running of the government.

There is also the possibility, a more distinct one, of the Deve Gowda camp finalising its strategy by Saturday and presenting a tricky situation for Sharad Yadav, the party's president, to handle when he arrives in Bangalore.

Yadav is scheduled to address a convention of backward classes, dalits and minorities on Sunday, where the newly appointed state party president, Siddaramaiah, will be named as the backward classes leader of the state.

Deve Gowda is scheduled to address the meeting along with Patel. But, the latter has announced his decision to leave for north Karnataka to review works at the irrigation projects.

Meanwhile, Patel decided to allocate the labour portfolio to B L Shankar after some of his cabinet colleagues sought the industries portfolio which the chief minister wanted to give the displaced party president.

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