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JDLP meeting only after session begins, says Kaldate

Janata Dal secretary-general Bapu Kaldate today said the Karnataka JD legislature party meeting would not take place before Friday, the day the state legislature session begins. The exact date will be decided later.

After meeting Karnataka Chief Minister J H Patel, who is in New Delhi to attend the Cauvery River Authority meeting tomorrow, Kaldate told the media he had received his [Patel's] letter expressing inability to postpone the legislature session and leaving the issue of convening the JDLP to the party.

"I am in touch with the party president (Sharad Yadav)," Kaldate added.

He said the Dal was happy that the crisis in the state was moving towards a solution. Even former prime minister H D Deve Gowda, who has become the focal point of the legislators opposed to Patel, had told him that efforts are on to sort out the issue.

"We want the unity of the party to be maintained," Kaldate said.

He said there was nothing wrong in Deve Gowda, as a senior leader of the party, meeting legislators and discussing problems. It is normal "democratic process", he said, "and does not amount to indiscipline".

It would have been indicipline if such things had happened in the assembly, Kaldate said.

About the JDLP leadership, he said, "The issue is not before us." He said the party was happy that its Karnataka unit had responded positively to Yadav's appeal to maintain unity.

Patel was unavailable for comment. He was scheduled to meet other Dal leaders, including former Union minister S Jaipal Reddy, today.

In Bangalore, senior Congress politician T N Narasimha Murthy said he would abstain from the legislative council to protest against the chief minister entering the assembly without proving his majority in the JDLP.

He said Patel had no moral right to enter the assembly as a group of Janata Dal legislators had clearly said they had lost confidence in his leadership.

Asked whether he had told Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dharam Singh about his decision, Murthy said he had decided to abstain as an individual.

He urged Governor Khurshid Alam Khan to take note of last week's developments in the state and initiate suo moto action as the administrative machinery had collapsed.

UNI

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