After weeks of sparring, the BJP and JD(S) spent a quiet day on Wednesday as the stars deemed it an “inauspicious” day. But rumours have started doing the rounds that the Congress is looking to move in for the kill. The party is meeting Governor Rameshwar Thakur on October 6-7 to seek his intervention.

Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa of the BJP, on his part, continued to harbour the hope that H D Kumaraswamy would hand over power. Yediyurappa even brushed aside doubts about the efficacy of a coalition that had been put through such strains.

While the BJP is watching power slipping from its fingers, ironically, as far as numbers in the House go, it holds the maximum seats at 79. The JD(S) strength is the lowest: 58. The Congress has 65 seats, apart from 10 dissidents who are believed to owe allegiance to the party. The magic figure to be in power in the 224-member Assembly is of course 113. A look at the key players:

Deve Gowda, JD(S)

As the national president of the Janata Dal (Secular), the former PM holds several crucial cards, all of which he is playing close to his chest. He now controls the 48 JD(S) MLAs still loyal to the party, including his son and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. This is unlike February 2006, when the JD(S) MLAs and Kumaraswamy seemingly took the initiative to ally with the BJP against Gowda’s wishes.

And Gowda has a key weapon to make the MLAs toe his line of thinking: a disqualification complaint filed against the MLAs for breaking rank, and the party’s “secular” ideology, when they allied with the BJP. This complaint is due to come up before Gowda-nominated Assembly Speaker Krishna on October 6.

... contd.