Karnataka Assembly elections 2018: Congress extends support to JDS, says Deve Gowda, HD Kumaraswamy have accepted offer

BENGALURU: Political temperature is running high in Karnataka as none of the three major parties - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Congress and the Janata Dal Secular - have been able to get a decisive mandate in the Assembly elections in the state. While BJP has emerged as the single largest party, the Congress and the JDS seem to be in no mood to give up. With the BJP falling short of a majority in the assembly, the Congress and the JDS are reaching out to the Governor staking claim to the government.

Till 3 pm, the BJP had bagged 105 seats and the Congress and JDS bagged 77 and 38 seats respectively. With this equation, if the Congress and the JDS join hands, they will be able to clear the magic figure of 112 seats, thereby form government in the state.

Portraying a strong collective front, CM Siddaramaiah along with Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, G Parameshwara and Ashok Gehlot faced the media and said that they will be meeting the Governor at 4pm on Tuesday. The Congress said that they will be presenting the letter of support to the JDS to the Governor to stake claim to form government in the state. "We had a telephonic conversation with Deve Gowda ji and Kumaraswamy. They have accepted our offer. Hopefully, we will be together. We are meeting the Governor this evening to stake claim," Ghulam Nabi Azad said.

Accepting that they do not enough numbers to form the government alone, G Parameshwara said: "We accept the mandate of the people. We bow our heads to the verdict. We don’t have numbers to form the government," said.

Sources have told Zee Media that former Congress president Sonia Gandhi has spoken to Deve Gowda. She also asked her close confidant Ghulam Nabi Azad to tell the JDS leadership that Congress was ready to accept JDS leader and Gowda's son HD Kumaraswamy as the next chief minister of Karnataka.

The halfway mark in the 225-member Karnataka Assembly is 113 but elections were held for just 222 seats and so any party or alliance will need 112 seats to form a government in the state. If Congress and JDS enter into a post-poll alliance, then they can very well deny the BJP a chance to form a government in the state in spite of the latter finishing within a striking distance of the halfway mark.