Cracks in Congress-JD(S) alliance become apparent

BENGALURU: The hush-hush alliance between Congress and JD(S) is showing signs of crumbling with the ruling party moving a no-confidence resolution against legislative council chairman D H Shankaramurthy .The Congress, which has a majority in the 75-member house (currently has a strength of 73), is deter mined to hold on to the seat, party sources said. The party's obvious choices are senior MLCs V S Ugrappa and H M Revanna. While Ugrappa, a lawyer from the ST community , is a contender given his authority over rules and procedures of the House, Revanna represents the Kuruba community to which CM Siddaramaiah belongs. The other names doing the rounds are C Motamma, K C Kondaiah and Pratap Chandra Shetty , Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi and Ivan D'Souza.

“There is a consensus over removing Shankara murthy from the chairman's post but the party is yet to decide on his replacement. The party will think about it soon,“ Ugrappa said.

Some months ago, JD(S) leaders at the behest of H D Deve Gowda had met Siddaramaiah seeking his support to remove Shankaramurthy and replace him with seventime MLC Basavaraj Horatti. They had reportedly received a positive response.But, when the ruling party recently set in motion the exercise of restructuring the organization, the thinking seemed to have changed.

On its part, the Congress wants to shut out the BJP on one hand and expose the secular credentials of JD(S). At present, the deputy chairperson's post is held by Marithibbe Gowda of the JD(S).According to party sources, the Congress plans to have its man as chairman and let JD(S) retain the deputy chairman's post, provided they support their resolution for removal of Shankaramurthy .

To remove the chairman of the council, the Congress needs support of 38 members.At present, the Congress has 35 members including independents and JD(S) 14 compared to BJP's 24.

Usually , once the resolution is moved, the chairman steps down from the post and a new chairman is elected through voting in the House.