Karnataka CM calls for informal cabinet meeting, JDS legislature meeting as BJP wins

With the Congress-JDS alliance in Karnataka facing a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has called an "informal" cabinet meeting on Friday. The Chief Minister has also convened a JDS legislature party meeting to review the results, party sources said.

"An informal cabinet meeting has been called tomorrow, May 24, 2019, at 12:30 PM, at cabinet hall in Vidhana Soudha (the state secretariat)," an official intimation sent out to Ministers said. At the meeting, the Chief Minister, along with his cabinet colleagues from both parties, are likely to discuss the Lok Sabha poll outcome and the way ahead for the coalition, sources said.

As the Congress-JDS government completed one year Thursday, it is on the edge with the Lok Sabha results widely expected to have a bearing on its stability. The meeting gains significance in the backdrop of both Congress and JD(S) facing a humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha polls by winning just one seat each, indicating that the alliance between the two parties has not worked.

Though coalition leaders decided to jointly fight the polls and reached a seat-sharing agreement of 21 and seven seats for Congress and JD(S) respectively, it was not something grass root level workers of both parties were okay with, especially in old Mysuru region, where they are arch rivals. BJP had contested 27 of 28 seats and supported independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh in Mandya.

According to sources, despite efforts by both parties to pacify their cadres and ensure the transfer of votes to each other, the alliance did not work in constituencies of old Mysuru region, that has had implications on the poll outcome and in turn may affect the stability of the government. Voices have started emerging in the Congress to end the alliance, holding the partnership with JD(S) as the reason for the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

The alliance also fears disgruntlement within and possible attempts by the BJP to "poach" its MLAs, aimed at destabilising the government.