HASSAN: The coalition Government will last as long as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) extends support to the Janata Dal (Secular), the former Minister and Congress leader, D.K. Shivakumar, has said.

Mr. Shivakumar was in Holenarsipur on Tuesday to attend the obsequies of the former MP G. Puttaswamy Gowda.

Mr. Shivakumar told presspersons that the BJP, which claimed to be a party opposed to corruption, was becoming a party to corrupt practices of the coalition Government.

Refuting the charge by Janata Dal (Secular) leaders that the Congress was supporting the BJP MLC G. Janardhan Reddy to bring down the coalition Government, the Congress leader said it was a mass-based national party and it did not need the help of an MLC from a ruling party to bring down a "corrupt" government. It would fight on its own strength against corruption. "As a responsible

Opposition party, we will not oppose the Government for the sake of opposing and we will support its pro-people programmes. At the same time, we will oppose it when it starts acting against the interests of the people," he said.

Asserting the party's demand for a probe by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Rs. 150 crore bribery charges against the Chief Minister,

H.D. Kumaraswamy, he wanted to know why the Government was favouring a CBI probe into the issue of allotment of seats by a medical college and why was it opposing a similar probe in to the corruption charges.

About Vokkaliga leaders meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi recently, he said every community was free to defend its interest and it was nothing new in a democratic set up as caste politics was now a part of the system.

The Congress was now concentrating on strengthening the party at all levels and the September 3 rally was a step in the direction. He said as the Janata Dal (Secular) President (H.D. Deve Gowda) had asked the rank and file of his party to prepare for the midterm poll, it was the responsibility of a national party to prepare for any eventuality.

`Not a saint'

About the silence of Maharashtra Governor S.M. Krishna on the question of returning to State politics, Mr. Shivakumar said that it was left to the party High Command to use the services of Mr. Krishna for strengthening the Congress in the state.

"Mr. Krishna is not a saint, he is an active politician. He is silent for the time being, as he is holding a constitutional post and he is duty bound to uphold the virtue of the Governor's post," he added.

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