BJP poised to take power in south India

BANGALORE (India)—The main Hindu nationalist party was poised to take power in southern India for the first time after ending a political feud that had brought down the government in Karnataka state.
A BJP-led government would help stave off elections 20 months before they are due in the prosperous state, whose capital Bangalore is home to the software, biotech and aerospace industries that are spearheading India’s economic boom.
The state of 60 million people came under New Delhi’s direct rule when the coalition government collapsed on October 9. State Governor Rameshwar Thakur was consulting legal experts after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staked its claim Saturday to forming a government with the support of old ally Janata Dal-Secular, news reports said.
The two parties together have a comfortable majority with 136 seats in the 224-member state assembly, bringing the BJP, India’s main opposition, within striking distance of leading a government in southern India.
Senior BJP leader Venkiah Naidu told reporters in Bangalore that the governor, a New Delhi appointee, had no option but to swear in a BJP-led state government because the numbers are in its favour.
It is the latest twist in a political drama that began three weeks ago when the state government collapsed in acrimony between the coalition partners in what analysts have called “politics of opportunism.”
“Never before has the state witnessed such as blatant opportunism in politics,” political commentator H.S. Balram wrote in a commentary in the Times of India.—Agencies