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Karnataka ministers stand by CM Patel

Karnataka Food and Civil Supplies Minister G Basavannappa today said the members of the state Cabinet who met in Bangalore a few days ago expressed unanimous support for the continuance of Chief Minister Jayadevappa Patel as leader of the Janata Dal Legislature Party.

Speaking to reporters in the state capital, Basavannappa said the Cabinet meeting was held after Patel was discharged from hospital. The chief minister recently underwent an operation for hernia.

A resolution expressing solidarity with Patel was not adopted at the meeting because the chief minister felt it was not called for.

Asked whether he would meet senior Janata Dal leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda on October 18, when some dissident party legislators plan to call on him, Basavannappa said he would attend the meeting if invited. "We [the ministers] will participate in the meeting and tell Mr Deve Gowda that Mr Patel is our leader," he said.

He said the party believed in the principle of collective leadership and it was for top leaders like Deve Gowda, Patel, and former party chief S R Bommai to sit together and resolve differences.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Janata Dal president B L Shankar ruled out dissolution of the state assembly, but welcomed the dissidents' decision to ask Deve Gowda to play a more active role in state politics with the assembly elections a year away.

Talking to reporters in Bangalore, Shankar said the government would complete its full five-year term and there was no question of dissolving the assembly.

Welcoming the letter written to Deve Gowda by about 50 dissident Dal legislators, he said there was nothing wrong in it. The MLAs wanted to improve the party's image, which is something everyone is interested in. The letter said nothing about a change in leadership in the state, he pointed out.

On the dissidents' stand that the question of change of leadership was still open, he said that was not the party's opinion.

He said Patel would meet Deve Gowda and Bommai because the party needs their services.

Replying to a question, he said Patel had not fixed any agenda for the JDLP meeting scheduled for October 28.

UNI

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