‘Internal bickering in the Cong hurt our coalition’

BENGALURU: A week after the Congress-janata Dal (Secular) coalition was toppled in Karnataka, former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy says internal bickering in the Congress destabilised his government. In an interview with Vikram Gopal, he says invisible forces had worked to ensure the coalition didn’t survive. Edited excerpts: The government wouldn’t have fallen even after all the recent developments. It really wasn’t hard to save the government, even after all the rebels left. However, there were many invisible hands that worked to ensure it didn’t survive.

There is no point in conducting a post-mortem now. Anyway, their party leaders should talk about their allegations. Those who claim they weren’t helped by the government are lying. Even before taking oath of office… he called the chief secretary and asked him to stop new projects and transfers sanctioned in July. That is his character. He said ‘forgive and forget’ but on Monday I found out that he has ordered an inquiry into some decisions I have taken. Let them launch any inquiry. We didn’t influence constitutional organisations like Yediyurappa did. Why would the governor act in such a manner if there was no pressure? However, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the BJP’S central leadership was involved in… the defections. No, I don’t feel that way. It had gone out of his control, in my opinion. I can’t talk about the coalition’s future right now. We have the experience of the parliamentary elections. So, both parties’ leaders have to take a final decision.