Sounding a note of caution over the Cabinet formation exercise taking much more time than required, senior JD(S) leader and former Minister Basavaraj Horatti has said that it was time for Congress leaders to shed their ego in the interest of keeping the alliance intact.
Addressing presspersons here on Wednesday, Mr. Horatti said: “The challenge is not forming the coalition, but keeping it intact. If they fail to bury their differences in the interest of the alliance, then there will be far worse consequences.”
Justifying the JD(S)-Congress alliance, Mr. Horatti contended that the stands of both the parties prior to the election should not be highlighted now, as the electorate had given a fractured mandate resulting in post-poll alliance. Following the unconditional support of the Congress, JD(S) had to change its decision of sitting in the Opposition and consent to form a coalition government, he said. “Now the onus should be on keeping BJP, which was trying to create problems, at bay,” he said.
The former Minister justified the decision of the Chief Minister to keep the finance portfolio with him as it was needed to take various crucial decisions on development.
Clarifying that there was no personal ill will between H.D. Kumaraswamy and D.K. Shivakumar, Mr. Horatti stressed on the need for both the parties to adopt a give and take policy to ensure better life span of the coalition government.
On the issue of having a 100-plus strong Opposition in the Assembly, he said the Ministers and government should tread the path carefully by not giving any scope for the Opposition to nail them down.
On the alleged attempts by the BJP to yet again make an attempt to form government in the State, Mr. Horatti said his party would counter any such attempt to snatch legislators. On Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly B.S. Yeddyurappa not attending the meeting on farmers’ issues convened by the Chief Minister, he said if BJP was really concerned about farmers, Mr. Yeddyurappa would have attended to suggest solution to end farmers’ woes.
To a query, Mr. Horatti clarified that he was not interested in holding any post in the government, but would like to coordinate between the coalition partners to ensure longer lifespan of the government.
