JDS chief’s first step: a warning to ally BJP

Notwithstanding his party’s coalition with the BJP, new President of the Karnataka unit of the JD(S) Merajuddin Patel on Monday asked the saffron party not to claim credit for certain welfare programmes of the JD(S)-BJP coalition Government.

Notwithstanding his party’s coalition with the BJP, new President of the Karnataka unit of the JD(S) Merajuddin Patel on Monday asked the saffron party not to claim credit for certain welfare programmes of the JD(S)-BJP coalition Government.

“Be it farmers’ loans, interest waiver schemes or distribution of foodgrains to the poor at subsidised rates, they are all JD(S) programmes and not that of the BJP or the Congress,” Patel said.

Just a month ahead of the power transfer from JD(S) to BJP, Patel, who represents the minority community and has been handpicked

by the party supremo to head the state unit in the run up to the urban local bodies elections, said that the BJP was in favour of the business class and the Congress, with the excise lobby.

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“Why did the BJP rule in states like Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan fail to implement the welfare schemes initiated by the JD(S) in Karnataka,” was the question posed by Patel to his coalition partner.

The splinter group within the JD(S), which opposed the coalition ties with the BJP in 2006, still continues to oppose it, Patel said.