Bangalore: Dashing the hopes of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has emerged as the single largest party in a fractured verdict in the Assembly polls in Karnataka, Janata Dal - Secular (JD-S) today (May 16, 2004) decided to join hands with Congress to form a coalition Government with it.

Spurning BJP, a meeting of the JD-S Legislature Party passed a unanimous resolution authorising its supremo H D Deve Gowda to hold talks with the Congress on the modalities of forming the next Government and ruled out either seeking the support or forming a coalition with the saffron party.

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After a meeting of its newly-elected MPs, MLAs and top party functionaries, Gowda said he would soon hold parleys with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on installing the new Government, but refused to divulge the nature of the coalition - whether it would be led by his party or Congress.

He said with the voters giving a verdict for hung Assembly, the party discussed the prevailing political situation and resolved to convert it into an "opportunity by accepting the challenge".

Gowda said the party has decided to maintain its identity and secular character and did not want to shirk his responsibility and added the issue of going to polls immediately also came up for debate.

Gowda indicated the process of forming a Government was expected to take time, as the Congress was busy at the Centre where the party led-coalition Government would be installed.

The meeting elected its state unit president Siddaramaiah as the JD-S Legislature Party leader.