HD Kumaraswamy, Gandhis 'fine-tune' Karnataka

JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi here on Monday, while the two parties worked on an initial power sharing-arrangement in Karnataka. Leaders are engaged in back-channel talks on the Number 2 and portfolios in the new government. Kumaraswamy will take oath as Karnataka's Chief Minister on Wednesday.

Kumaraswamy also met and requested a string of leaders to attend his swearing-in, billed as an event to mobilise anti-BJP forces ahead of next year's general elections. "I wanted to show my respect and regards to the Gandhi family. That's why I came here. I requested them to be present at the oath-taking ceremony and both of them agreed to be there," he said.

Rahul said that he discussed the political situation in Karnataka and other matters of mutual interest. "I will be attending his swearing-in," he said on Twitter.

Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Ghulam Nabi Azad and JD(S) leaders will hold a meeting in Bengaluru on Tuesday again, where power-sharing modalities would be worked out.

Kumaraswamy has ruled out that the CM's post will be shared with Congress. He said he was confident that the coalition government with Congress in Karnataka will be stable and dynamic. Rahul is expected to have a meeting with senior Congress leaders and influential local leaders in Karnataka to finalise the modalities.

A maximum of 33 ministerial berths can be allotted as per the maximum limit of 15% of the total strength of the Assembly. The challenge before JD(S) and Congress is to keep their flock of 37 and 78 MLAs intact while distributing ministerial berths. "We don't want it to be confined only to power-sharing but a future alliance... Both reciprocated the feelings," said Venugopal.

It was decided that Congress will get the post of the Speaker. "We haven't agreed on Deputy Chief Minister. We have asked the two state units to work this out and even the power-sharing formula," Venugopal said.

Congress wants two positions of Deputy Chief Minister — one for a Lingayat candidate and the other for a Dalit, but that is not acceptable to JD(S), sources say. DK Shivakumar, G Parameshwara and MB Patil are among those in the race for the proposed second post.

Leaders of 11 Opposition parties and Chief Ministers of four states — Andhra Pradesh's N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee and Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal — are expected to attend Kumaraswamy's oath ceremony. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan may also attend the event.

BS Yeddyurappa formed government on Wednesday, but had to quit three days later without facing a trust vote as BJP — though the single-largest party — remained short of majority. JD(S) and Congress, who had fought against each other, then staked claim to form a coalition government. This is the biggest political setback for BJP and a rare success for Congress after Narendra Modi swept to power at the Centre four years ago.