K'taka: Gowda stands by as BJP softens on JD-S

New Delhi, Sep 23: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda today said the future of BJP-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka would be in danger if the BJP went ahead with its proposed week long pooja at Bababudan Giri in Chikmagalur district even as the BJP soft pedalled the issue by stating that the two parties were capable of resolving their differences at the local level.

Mr Gowda, who is on his way back to Bangalore, told UNI that the two interviews appearing in the newspapers of Delhi and Bangalore were 'factual and there had been no distortion' and he had nothing more to add to whatever had been said.

The newspaper reports quoting Mr Gowda said that the coalition in the state would end if the BJP leadership did not desist State Education Minister D H Shankara Murthy from dropping the stories of 'Tiger of Srirangapatam' from the school textbooks and ensure that the there was no distortion from the Common Minimum Action Plan of the two coalition partners.

The BJP on its part declined to react to Mr Gowda's comments and said the joint mechanism of the two parties was capable of ironing out their differences locally. However, the indications are that they may be asking Karnataka Education Minister to soften his stance on Tipu Sultan because one could not forget the fact that he was the one who had given tough fight to British as a ruler of Mysore.

He said the BJP did not want to comment on Mr Gowda's statements and it was a known fact that he was opposed to the BJP-JD(S) coalition right from the beginning. ''I have no comments on his statement but as far as the BJP is concerned, it has good working relations with Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumara Swamy and there are no problems,'' he said.

He said the BJP had suspended its legislator Janardhana Reddy when his actions crossed the limits and the party was seized of the issue. The party never approved of his actions.

UNI

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