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October 5, 2007
Deve Gowda Meets Rajnath Singh

New Delhi
Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) chief H.D. Deve Gowda held informal talks with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh here Friday evening to end the stand-off between the coalition partners in Karnataka, even as the JD-S ruled out transfer of power in the state.

The two leaders met at a common friend's house in the capital, a JD-S source said, but declined to say what the outcome of the talks were. Gowda had earlier called off the meeting but then changed his mind.

Gowda and Singh are to meet again Saturday.

Both parties are to discuss the issue Saturday at their respective meetings - the BJP will hold its parliamentary board meeting, while the JD-S political affairs committee will also meet.

Late Friday, JD-S general secretary Danish Ali said: "There will be no transfer of power."

The two parties had reached an arrangement in February 2006 to form a coalition government. Under the arrangement, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S was to hand over the reins of office to the BJP after 20 months on Oct 3.

However, Kumaraswamy refused to do so, leading to all the 17 BJP ministers in his cabinet submitting their resignations on Tuesday night.

Earlier, when asked about the reports from Bangalore that the BJP was threatening to withdraw support to the Kumaraswamy government on Oct 8, Ali said: "Our leadership has conveyed in Bangalore that the Kumaraswamy government will face a floor test in the house on Oct 18. The state cabinet has decided this."

IANS | October 5, 2007   

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