Signaling a widening rift between the coalition partners?the BJP and the JD(S)?in Karnataka over the issue of transfer of power that is threatening to destabilise the HD Kumaraswamy government, a crucial meeting of the co-ordination committee of the two parties has been put off.
The meeting, which was supposed to held on Friday, has been re-scheduled for Saturday with indications that an angry JD(S), peeved over the flash protest by BJP ministers to stay away from a Cabinet meeting on Thursday, has decided to respond in the same coin.
BJP circles here, however, concede that the differences essentially pertain to transfer of power in the state from the JD(S) to the BJP. As per an agreed formula, the BJP is to take over the chief minister’s post from Kumaraswamy in the first week of October. However, while the JD(S) has publicly said that the transfer of power would take place smoothly as per the agreement, the BJP leadership has developed suspicion in the backdrop of a few of the recent decisions taken by the chief minister.
Now, if the transfer of power in the state does not take place, it would be the second failure of the BJP to experiment with such an arrangement.
It happened once in Uttar Pradesh when the BJP could not get the chief minister’s post, as BSP chief Mayawati refused to oblige.
The Congress, however, seems to have better mastered the art, as it managed to get the chief minister’s post smoothly in Jammu & Kashmir sharing half of the tenure with Mufti Mohammad Sayeed of the PDP.