Wanted 70 but won only 38

Bengaluru: Though designated as the CM candidate of the Congress-JD(S) coalition, former CM H.D. Kumaraswamy is said to be upset over the results of the Assembly polls.

On Tuesday, Mr Kumaraswamy spent the first half of the day in a hotel room, watching the results. As the trends started coming in, Mr Kumaraswamy started getting upset. He had been talking all along about a simple majority and was expecting that the party would get at least 70 seats. As it went down to half of his expectations – 38 seats – Mr Kumaraswamy became upset.

When the Congress extended unconditional support to make him CM, Mr Kumaraswamy told his associates that he was pained about his hard work – despite his failing health – not paying off.

“This time also, people did not make me CM. I can, however, become CM because of the system we have in place. I was always accused of destroying the secular credentials of my father and this is the only chance to set things right.” Sources in JD(S) said that if the Congress-JD(S) coalition becomes a reality, then the government could have a dalit Deputy Chief Minister. So far, no Dalit has become CM or Dy  CM and there is a clamour for this. Though Mrs Sonia Gandhi has offered unconditional external support to the JD(S), Mr Gowda has not agreed to this. There are two reasons for this. If the JD(S) gets the chance to form a government, almost all the JD(S) MLAs would become ministers, which would anger Congress members, who are in larger numbers. It might become easy for the BJP to trigger differences among members of the coalition.