JD-S legislator against transfer of power to BJP

Bangalore, June 22 (UNI) Janata Dal (Secular) legislator M D Venkatesh today came out openly against transfer of power to Bharatiya Janata Party due in October.

Claiming that he was speaking on behalf of all the JD-S legislators, Mr Venkatesh, addressing a press conference here, said ''JD-S legislators want Mr H D Kumaraswamy to continue as Chief Minister and power should not be transferred to BJP.'' ''The coalition government should be led by Mr Kumaraswamy only and not by Mr B S Yediyurappa,'' he added.

Replying to a question, he claimed he represented the views of all (JD)S MLAs.

He alleged that if the power was transferred and Mr Yediyurappa was appointed as Chief Minister, the JD-S image would suffer further damaged. In the past several months, the BJP had failed to extend cooperation to JD(S) as expected, particularly with regard to crop loan waiver. The JD-S legislators were not satisfied with the way Mr Yediyurappa was functioning as Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister, he alleged.

Stating that he had allegedly expressed his opinion against the handing over of power to BJP to party National President H D Deve Gowda, Mr Venkatesh said the MLAs had met several times recently and had taken this decision.

He said they had urged Mr Deve Gowda to leave the decision on transfer of power to BJP, to them and not interfere this time.

UNI