BANGALORE, February 9: Another Janata Dal minister in Karnataka resigned today, spelling more trouble for the 19-month-old J H Patel ministry but the ruling party asserted that its government faced no threat.Forest Minister Gurupadappa Nagmarpalli, a loyalist of former Chief Minister Ramakrishna Hegde, announced his decision to quit, accusing former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda of being ``dictatorial'' and saying he was unable to bear his ``torment''.
Nagmarpalli, the fourth Hegde loyalist minister to resign since last month, said he would be in the Dal but Hegde said in Hubli that he might join his non-political outfit Rashtreeya Nava Nirmana Vedike. Earlier, R V Deshpande, Ramesh Jigajinagi and Ajaykumar Sarnaik had quit the ministry.
Significantly, Hegde did not rule out the possibility of a coalition government between his party Lok Shakti and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the post Lok Sabha poll scenario. ``It all depends upon now and the date of polling''. Patel, who is on an election tourin Bijapur, has accepted the resignation of Nagmarpalli, the Janata Dal spokesman and Transport Minister P G R Sindhia announced, while asserting that the government was stable. Sindhia added that Patel had decided to accept the resignation, which he described as an act of betrayal.
He accused Nagamarapalli and other legislators who have joined Ramakrishan Hegde's apolitical outfit of resorting to ``opportunistic politics'. Flaying former minister R L Jalappa, he said Jalappa enjoyed power for 18 months and ridiculed Jalappa's statement that joining the Congress was a homecoming for him.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
