Congress offers crown to kingmaker

In the run-up to results day, all the talk was about how H D Kumaraswamy and his father, former PM H D Deve Gowda, would hold the key in the event of a hung House in Karnataka. But in a dramatic twist, the Congress ended up offering the crown to the would-be kingmaker.

Ironically, outgoing Congress CM Siddaramaiah had been expelled from JD(S) in 2005 after a bitter falling-out with the party leadership. But on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah was forced to set aside years of rancour and seek an alliance with JD(S), marking the third time in recent memory that sworn enemies have united to ensure their survival when faced with the BJP juggernaut. The other two cases were the alliance between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, which ultimately crumbled, and the recent SP-BSP bonhomie.

Kumaraswamy is no stranger to heading a minority government. He had earlier served as CM from February 2006 to October 2007 as part of a power-sharing arrangement with BJP, which eventually collapsed. In case he is able to form a government this time around, he will be hoping for a longer tenure.