Karnataka results cong and bjp reach out to jd(s), offer deputy cm post

include the expenditure incurred on the prime minister’s campaign.

With the counting of votes of the Karnataka assembly polls slated for Tuesday, and most exit polls having predicted a hung assembly, behind the scenes negotiations are on. JD(S) sources said Kumaraswamy, who has been a chief minister once, is unlikely to accept the offer to be the deputy chief minister. The BJP and Congress are hopeful that Kumaraswamy would be amenable to accepting his elder brother HD Revanna as the deputy chief ministerial candidate.

Kumaraswamy, some in the JD(S) claimed, was in Singapore for health reasons. But it seemed former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s son wanted to get away from Bengaluru, and was set to return on Monday night.

Opposition leaders, including Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief Sitaram Yechury and dissident Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, have also spoken with Deve Gowda.

While considerations other than purely political might dictate the eventual shape of things, Yechury and others have advised Deve Gowda to remember how his party suffered politically when Kumaraswamy formed a coalition government with