The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Coordination panel to meet today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 20, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Coordination panel to meet today

Staff Reporter

Sriramulu to provide documents to build a case against the allegation made by Janardhana Reddy

BANGALORE: The coordination committee of the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) met here late Wednesday to discuss the fallout of BJP MLC Janardhana Reddy's allegation against Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of being beneficiary of Rs. 150 crore as bribe from the mining lobby.

The meeting, which took place at Krishna in the absence of the Chief Minister, was intended to express solidarity with Mr. Kumaraswamy and to demonstrate that neither partner wants the coalition to break up.

Home Minister and Janata Dal (S) State unit president M.P. Prakash and BJP general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar told presspersons after the meeting that by suspending Mr. Janardhana Reddy from the party immediately, the BJP had shown its commitment to the coalition "dharma".

"An invisible hand is behind these developments and both parties would like to put the episode behind and move on,'' Mr. Prakash said.

Important

Mr. Ananth Kumar said the partnership and the agenda that the two parties charted for themselves were important to the BJP and the suspension of Mr. Janardhana Reddy had become necessary to demonstrate this. However, the meeting was incomplete and was convened mainly to show that the Chief Minister had the support of coalition partner.

The coordination committee would meet again on Thursday after Tourism Minister B. Sriramulu provided documents and material to build a case against the allegation made by Mr. Janardhana Reddy, he added.

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