Patel open to talks with Hegde; warns against tie-up with BJP

NEW DELHI, Dec 18: Conceding that the proposed BJP-Lok Shakti tie-up in Karnataka could pose a bigger challenge to the Janata Dal than the ...

NEW DELHI, Dec 18: Conceding that the proposed BJP-Lok Shakti tie-up in Karnataka could pose a bigger challenge to the Janata Dal than the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, State Chief Minister J H Patel said he is open to talks with Ramakrishna Hegde. “If he wants to co-operate with the United Front and fight the BJP and the Congress, he is welcome. But not if he goes on talking to Advani and Sitaram Kesri,” he told a small group of reporters here today.

Asked if United Front chairman H D Deve Gowda, Hegde’s arch political enemy, would accept the idea

of the Lok Shakti joining hands with the coalition, Patel said: “If he wants to be part of the UF, then the steering committee will decide. But he has shown no inclination so far.”

Though still angry with Hegde for his threats to pull down his government, the Karnataka Chief Minister made all the right noises about his erstwhile party colleague. “He has a good track record in politics. In the interest of the State and the country, a man like him should co-operate with the UF and retain his identity. If he joins hands with the BJP there won’t be an entity called Hegde,” he said.

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Patel’s remarks reflect the uneasiness in Janata Dal circles about the imminent BJP-Hegde alliance. A thoroughly divided house, the State unit is facing a crisis of confidence in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. An immediate test is the election to 25 Legislative Council seats where rebel candidates are making life difficult for the official nominees.

Hegde, who is arriving in the Capital tomorrow from Chandigarh where the Lok Shakti held its national executive meeting, is expected to hold formal talks with BJP President L K Advani soon to finalise the alliance.

All this while, he had been keeping the option of an understanding with the Congress open but with the State unit deadset against it, Hegde has all but decided to go with the BJP. In the BJP’s assessment, the Lok Shakti leader could help cut the Janata Dal vote decisively in its favour in constituencies where it had lost narrowly in the 1996 elections.