Cong-JD(S) govt in K'taka may fall before year-end: BJP leader P Muralidhar

Hyderabad: Senior BJP leader P Muralidhar Rao on Monday said his party would not try to destabilise the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka but indicated the coalition may fall before the year end.

The party general secretary in charge of Karnataka affairs said the BJP has maintained in the past year that the coalition government is not a stable one, it cannot survive and it would not last.

Rao, asked if the coalition government would last the calendar year 2019, told PTI here in Hyderabad, "2019 itself may be a little longer; I don't know because things are not stable is the fact." "New development has added to the problem", he said, obviously referring to the coalition worries that have been compounded by the BJP's spectacular performance, winning 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in the state, leaving a mere one each to the Congress and JD(S).

The BJP-backed independent Sumalatha had also won. The BJP had won 104 seats in the Assembly elections last year and added one more to its tally in the bypolls held along with recent Lok Sabha elections.

The ruling combine has 117 members -- 78 of the Congress, 37 of the JD(S), one of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and one Independent.

"Basically, the government has become delegitimate, people have rejected it. Technically, as a combined force, they (Congress-JD-S) may say they have majority. But mandate is different, majority is different; so you are robbed off legitimacy," Rao said.

"Why we (BJP) should destabilise (the government) when people are not accepting (the coalition)? They do not have people's support, so don't you think within Congress and JD(S) people (MLAs) will be eager to get out?", he said.

Rao said it is not the responsibility of the BJP to keep the government in Karnataka going. "If anybody (MLAs of the ruling coalition) comes out, should I not meet? I am not doing any special game (not destabilising)," he said.