INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Minister BS Yeddyurappa could have been able to prove majority if he had a fortnight to face the test of strength
Because, BJP president Amit Shah said on Saturday, many legislators of the Janata Dal Secular legislators would have sensed the public mood
in their constituencies against the "unholy" alliance with the Congress and supported the BJP government on their own.Mr Shah rebutted the
Congress-JDS accusation that it had been trying to lure their legislators with bribes running into crores of rupees
If this had been true, the party would have managed to reach the majority mark, Mr Shah said at the India TV Conclave in the national
"Had we got the 15-day period to prove our majority, their party MLAs would have gone to their constituencies and they would have changed
their mind," Mr Shah said, according to a statement by television channel India TV
But they were locked away by their parties in hotels and elsewhere, he said.Leaders of the Congress-JDA combine say they had to shield their
legislators from pressure plied by the BJP to engineer defections.Over the last two days, the Congress has backed up its allegation with
audio tapes, of what it claimed, were a recording of phone calls received from BJP leaders including Janardhan Reddy, the scam-tainted
mining baron from Ballari.HD Kumaraswamy, who was invited by the governor to become chief minister on Saturday evening, had earlier alleged
some of his party's lawmakers had received offers of Rs 100 crores in cash and ministerial berths in exchange for their support.Amit Shah,
considered the BJP's master strategist, also denied that the BJP would try to pull down the alliance government.He, however, predicted
that the government would not last long due to internal pressure that would pull it in different directions."You just wait for one year," he
said, prophesising a major victory for the BJP in the next elections held in the state."Such a government will not last long in the state
Congress leaders have themselves not accepted their alliance with JDS," said Mr Shah, whose party has been accused for trying to bribe or
arm-twist legislators into supporting Mr Yeddyurappa.The Congress, which ended up with 78 seats in the Karnataka assembly elections, had
teamed up with the rival JDS, to keep the BJP out of power
The BJP, which secured 104 seats in the state assembly, is the single largest party in the assembly but is still some distance away from the
majority mark of 111 seats
It nevertheless picked up an invite from governor Vajubhai Vala on Thursday and was given 15 days to prove its majority.Sensing that the BJP
would attempt to poach its lawmakers, the Congress and the JDS had promptly sequestered its legislators, initially in Karnataka and after Mr
Yeddyurappa became chief minister, in Telangana capital Hyderabad.
