No threat to Karnataka Govt: Dharam Singh

    Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh today rejected suggestions of his Government facing an eminent collapse in the wake of reports of differences between his Congress Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) led by former Prime Minister H D Dewe Gowda. "We will sort out everything. There is no threat to the government and it will function smoothly," Singh told newspersons here. Karnatakas coalition government seemed to be heading for trouble with the Janata Dal (S) expressing its objection to the Congress decision to court rebel leaders S. Siddharamaiah. Party chief H.D. Deve Gowda had said on January 9 that he would take a final decision on severing relation with the Congress after consulting his party executive in Bangalore early next month. The Congress high command had given a free hand to its the state unit to align either with the Janata Dal (S) or its rival the All India Progressive Janata Dal led by Siddaramaiah during the Zila Parishad elections. A section of the state Congress supporting Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna was reportedly in favour of the party striking an alliance with Siddaramaiah.

    Deve Gowda had said he is in favour of going to the people if the present arrangement with the Congress fails. "I told her (Sonia Gandhi) if there is any strain in our relationship, without going to the press, I will come to your house and I will tell this. Then we will part our company as friends," said Gowda in an interview. "I will come to 10 Janpath, I will convey the decision of my party before making it public because I made a promise when we have accepted this new arrangement to keep the communal forces, which was growing in Karnataka," he added. Sources in the JD(S), however, indicated that the Deve Gowda was irked by the Congress's ambiguous stand and has made up his mind to part ways and convened a meeting of the national executive in Bangalore on the 7th of next month. He is expected to convey the outcome to the Congress Chief on the next day in New Delhi.

   The JD(S) chief met senior BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee and discussed the prevailing political situation in the country. Though Gowda termed it as a courtesy call, the meeting assumes significance in the wake of his disenchantment with Congress in Karnataka. Meanwhile, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M Venkaiah Naidu had on January 12 said in Chennai that the coalition had failed in Karnataka and against the backdrop of an open fight between the JD (U) and the Congress, there was no option left except to go to the people. "BJP feels that there is no way other than going for election in Karnataka. The coalition experiment in the state has failed. There is open fighting going on between JD(S) and Congress," said Naidu "There was no question of the BJP supporting the JD (U), which was a constituent of the coalition government led by Dharam Singh," he said, adding, ''The BJP is the number one party in Karnataka with 79 MLAs. How can we think of directly or indirectly supporting anyone?" In a party revamp, Deve Gowda has reconstituted the national executive of the party. The constitution followed the organisational elections concluded with the re-election of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda as the party president in November last year. New central office bearers were announced. As per the new constitution the present secretary general Bapu Kaldat became vice-president of JD (S). There are also five new general secretaries and three secretaries.

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