The Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party combine, which assumed office in Karnataka on Friday following the collapse of the Congress-led coalition government, has ensured that all major political parties share power in the state.
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The inherent political instability thrown up by the fractured verdict in the 2004 assembly polls has in a way provided an opportunity to all political outfits to enjoy power for the first time in the history of the state.
The newly cobbled up political combination not only ensured that the saffron party had the chance of coming to power but also resulted in sharing of power 'by rotation.'
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As the 2004 assembly results gave no majority to any of the political parties, the Congress and JD-S, setting aside their political ideologies, joined hands to form the first ever coalition government, claiming that the mandate was for installing a 'secular government.'
The Dharam Singh-led government, which suffered from birth pangs ever since it assumed office in the wake of differences among coalition partners, managed to stay in office for exactly 20 months, before JD-S supremo H D Devegowda's son Kumaraswamy brought it down.
Rebel leader Kumaraswamy surprised everyone when he joined hands with BJP to form a new government considering that his party had been labelling BJP as 'communal' all along.
Karnataka has witnessed political instability for the third time after the 1983 verdict during which the first ever non-Congress government headed by Ramakrishna Hegde ruled the state with the support of the 18-member BJP group.
The BJP emerged as the single largest party with 79 legislators in the 224-member house in the last assembly polls. But the JD-S spurned its offer of support, clinging to its secular credentials, which the latter has now opted to relax.
Time alone will tell whether the JD(S)-BJP friendship will see them through the remaining 40 months of the present assembly term or whether the state would witness another political upheaval.
