Prakash, who quit the JD(S) along with three legislators last month, has bought time till January 15 to make up his mind. With Assembly elections expected sometime in April, both the Congress and the BJP are desperate to drum up their prospects. On the other hand, the JD(U), has stepped up efforts to retrieve ground in its erstwhile stronghold.

Sources in the JD(U) told The Indian Express that party leaders have established contact with Prakash. “The JD(U) is a natural home for him,” they said. However, getting wind of the JD(U) designs, BJP chief ministerial candidate B S Yeddyurappa has started making statements that the BJP would not align with the JD(U). He is dismissive of any JD(U) presence in the state.

Yeddyurappa’s remarks are intended to dissuade Prakash and others in his camp from joining the JD(U). Obviously, Prakash would not risk being caught in a three-cornered fight with the candidates of both principal players pitted against him.

The sources said the JD(U) leadership has sounded the BJP high command for wriggling out of this tight situation. Their contention is that the BJP should facilitate Prakash’s entry to the JD(U) instead of losing him to the Congress. The JD(U) is hopeful of prevailing upon the BJP to contradict the position taken by Yeddyurappa vis-à-vis a poll alliance between the two parties so that Prakash feels reassured about BJP support for himself and his followers. They said the two parties had an alliance during the last Assembly polls too and the JD(U) had won five seats.

“The BJP should become wiser and take a broader view,” the JD(U) sources said. It would also pave the way for a total consolidation of Lingayats behind Yeddyurappa, they said while pointing out that the JD(U) already has some prominent Lingayat faces, including Basvaraj Bommai, son of former chief minister S R Bommai. They recalled that the JD(U) has a rich legacy of Lingayat backing. Though the first Janata Dal chief minister Ramkrishna Hegde was Brahmin, he represented the ascendance of Lingayats. The

other two Janata Dal chief ministers, Bommai and J H Patel, were both Lingayats. The JD(U)’s case is that

the big brother should allow its junior NDA partner to mop up all floating elements to reduce space for the Congress. But even the BJP knows that the JD(U)’s goal is not the welfare of its national ally. Once the JD(U) spreads its wings, it would only get more ambitious.