Karnataka coalition in trouble as BJP says no to highway takeover

Karnataka coalition in trouble as BJP says no to highway takeover
The Indian Express

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy BANGALORE, JUNE 13: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s 47-acre plot right next to the Bangalore-Mysore expressway and his government’s plan to enact a law to take over the project has kicked off a political storm within his coalition—and in the Opposition as well.

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Both the proposal to bring the Bill and Kumaraswamy’s plot were first reported by The Indian Express.

While former Chief Minister and Congress leader Dharam Singh and state party chief M Mallikarjun Kharge called for a CBI probe into land ownership of Kumaraswamy and the Deve Gowda family, the ruling coalition partner, the BJP, has opposed the takeover of India’s first private road project, the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC).

Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa of the BJP even worried that this controversy would “jeopardize” the coalition.


The two partners, JD(S) and BJP, locked horns ahead of a key Cabinet meeting originally scheduled to approve the Karnataka Streamlining of Infrastructure and Land Reforms Bill 2006 for takeover of the BMIC from the private builders, the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE).

With a consensus elusive, both partners deferred to June 26 a legislative session proposed for June 19 to table the Bill.

The Cabinet meeting, scheduled for 4.30 pm, failed to begin for over four hours after JD(S) and BJP leaders remained confined in separate rooms in the Vidhana Soudha, while Law Minister Basavaraj Horatti shuttled between them as mediator.

The JD(S) is insisting on a Bill to take over the entire project from NICE while the BJP is proposing a limited takeover—that of only the “excess” land—and wants NICE to complete the project.

After several rounds of talks, the two partners decided to hold the Cabinet meeting without the BMIC Bill on the agenda. A visibly upset Kumaraswamy refused to answer questions. “Ask the BJP,” he said.