Sunday, August 7 2005 14:47 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: In a statement that contradicted his party opposition leader in the assembly B S Yediyurappa, BJP Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu today (August 7, 2005) made it clear that there was no proposal before the party so far to form an alternative government with the JDS in the state.

"There is no such proposal. JDS is already married to the Congress", Naidu told reporters, as the BJP Karnataka unit faced turmoil with differences in the party over joining hands with the JDS surfacing openly for the last few days.

Naidu said the JDS had joined hands with the Congress after the assembly elections and the "experiment is still there". "To my knowledge, there is no vacancy of any government in the state. If there is a break up, one can think about it. (But) no proposal has come to BJP in this regard".

His position comes in conflict with that of Yediyurappa who maintained after holding a meeting with MLAs supporting him that the ongoing moves to form an alternative government had the support of the party high command.

Toying with the idea of joining hands with JDS, Yediyurappa has been holding a series of meetings with his supporters, brushing aside intervention by central leaders.

Asked about Yediyurappa's group meetings, Naidu said, "the thing is party MLAs meeting one person in the party. What is wrong in this". The party would try to get the feedback of MLAs and "try to understand" the situation at the legislature party meeting convened this afternoon, he said.

To a query, he admitted that "there seems to be some problem (in the party). I am not denying it". He also remarked that he had learnt in politics that "one side romance" would not work.