Bengaluru: With barely a day left for his swearing in as CM of a JD(S)–Congress coalition government on Wednesday, JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is now in Delhi, is battling a series of thorny issues on which the stability of the coalition and its future rests.
While senior Congress leaders, including party general secretary K.C. Venugopal, said in Delhi that the Assembly Speaker’s post would go to the Congress, the sharing of Cabinet berths between the Congress and JD(S) and the selection of ministers besides the vexed issue of the deputy CM post would be discussed at a meeting of Congress and JD(S) leaders in Bengaluru on Tuesday, said sources.
The top leadership of the two parties have decided to make a new beginning leaving behind the past, when they had come together and fallen apart, and vowed to have “a long-term relationship”.
The choice of Speaker had become contentious with the Congress reportedly insisting that its nominee should get the plum post as it has a higher number of MLAs — 78 — in the Assembly and reportedly convincing the JD(S) about its claim. The number of berths each coalition partner will also be debated at the meeting on Tuesday with the Congress demanding at least 20 berths in the new ministry which can have a maximum strength of 33.
Another major issue which the coalition leaders are grappling with is that of the deputy CM post. According to sources, the Congress has mooted two deputy CMs as it is the numerically strong party, in order to strike a balance with the JD(S) which has bagged the CM post but the regional party is not in favour of this proposal. The frontrunners in the Congress for the deputy CM post are KPCC chief G. Parameshwar, a dalit, former water resources minister M.B. Patil and KPCC working president S.R. Patil, who both belong to the dominant Lingayat community.
Dr Parameshwar is widely regarded as the first choice for deputy CM, but it remains to be seen if the Lingayats will take kindly to any move to deprive them of the post if the coalition decides to have only one deputy CM and more so when the tallest leader of the community, Mr Yeddyurappa of the BJP, had to make a hasty exit from power a couple of days ago.
Mr Kumaraswamy will take the oath on Wednesday in front of the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power.
