Two MLAs exit but HDK is still unfazed

The HD Kumraswamy government in Karnataka got a jolt on Tuesday when two independent MLAs - R Shankar and H Nagesh - withdrew their support and decided to back the BJP.

There is no immediate threat to the stability of the HDK government as the coalition has 118 lawmakers on its side (80 of the Congress and 38 of the JDS). The magic figure is 113 in the 224-member House.

Responding to the withdrawal of support, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said he is totally relaxed and is sure about his strength. ‘‘I am totally relaxed. I know my strength. Whatever is going on in media in the past week, I am enjoying,” he said.

In fact, Kumaraswamy spent a long time with Muniratna, an MLA, viewing the teaser of a movie that features HDK's son Nikhil Gowda.

Despite his confidence, trouble seems to be brewing on multiple fronts. Both the Congress and the JD(S) have been forced to go through a bitter political marriage and view each other with suspicion and hatred.

In fact, JD(S) supremo did not hide his ire when he said, “Only god can save this government.” The comment was aimed at the Congress rather than the BJP.

Meanwhile, Nagesh, one of the two independent MLAs who withdrew support, said a Congress leader who is now a

minister had held him hostage after the assembly elections. He picked up Nagesh from the counting centre and forcibly took him to the governor and that was the reason he was hiding in Mumbai. "The Congress paid no respect to us and there wasn't any understanding between the coalition partners," he said. The allusion was to State Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar who is Congress's trouble shooter.

In fact, DKS, as Shivakumar is known, is flying to Mumbai to try and fetch Nagesh and Shankar back to Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader and party's in-charge for Karnataka P Muralidhar Rao said the JD(S)-Congress government in the state "cannot survive" its full five-year term and will fall on its own due to internal conflicts. Senior BJP leader DV Sadananda Gowda too admitted that the Kumaraswamy government would collapse on its own due to squabbling and that the Congress-JD(S) friendship was on the "brink of divorce". This is a fact. The Congress hates Kumaraswamy and the JD(S) but is forced to politically co-habit with Gowda and his sons. The JD(S) in its part is trying to assert itself and wants more say in the decision making and wants to make inroads into Congress bastions. More than BJP trying to pull down the coalition, internal strife and power struggle within the Congress and JD(S) may lead to the collapse of the government.

This is why a confident BS Yeddyurappa asked the BJP MLAs in Karnataka to wait for the good news. "Why have we come all the way if not to wait for a good news," he told the BJP MLAs.

The BJP hopes to move a no-confidence motion against the Kumaraswamy government if the party can get an assurance from 14 MLAs of the coalition to absent themselves during voting.