BJP rebels to get back ministerial posts?

PANAJI - The solution to the political crisis in Karnataka seemed to be in sight on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party agreeing to restore the ministerships along with their portfolios to the rebels.

If senior BJP Goa leaders are to be believed, the party high command is understood to have also agreed to give a ministerial berth to an Independent.

North Goa MP and senior Goa BJP leader Shripad Naik told The Hindu from a resort in south Goa where the BJP leaders have been negotiating with the rebels since their arrival that the compromise formula was accepted by the BJP leadership in New Delhi.

He said that the 14 rebels who had a final meeting of their own around 8 p.m. may leave for Bangalore on Saturday morning.

Former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had a series of meetings with the rebels till late in the evening on Friday along with Mr. Naik and Karnataka Tourism Minister G. Janardhan reddy, also reiterated that the crisis was getting resolved.

He, however, declined to say when the rebel MLAs would leave Goa.

According to sources in the BJP here, what apparently clinched the issue for the BJP was that the Janata Dal (S) leader and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was also camping at the resort since Thursday evening, made several offers and gave various assurances to the rebels but could not give any concrete assurance about Congress support to form an alternative government. In the absence of that, they apparently feared the threat of disqualification.

Mr. Kumaraswamy left the resort around 6.30 p.m. stating that "there are still two days left."

He rejected the allegation that he had come to Goa for "horse trading" and instead claimed that he came to Goa to rest.

Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Sanjay Bandekar, father-in-law of rebel MLA Anand Asnotikar, who was present at the resort since Thursday, refuted the BJP's allegation on Friday that the Goa Congress leaders and Ministers had gone there to woo the rebels in favour of Congress.

Source : The Hindu , October 9, 2010