Saturday, January 7 2006 20:10 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) today (Jan 7,2006) claimed that the fissures that have surfaced between the ruling coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal- (JD) Secular (S) in Karnataka would lead to collapse of the Government and snap polls to assembly by May.

Sharp differences have already gripped both the parties and the JDS supremo H D Devegowda's opposition to development works has brought the development in the state to a standstill, AIPJD leader and former deputy chief Minister Siddaramaiah alleged while addressing party workers at a function organised here to felicitate newly elected zilla and taluk panchayat members.

Continuing his attack on Gowda, who got him sacked from the ministry after he refused to abide by the former Prime Minister's dictates, Siddaramaiah charged that Gowda has developed tendency to oppose all development programmesincluding metro rail and appointment of thasildars.

"It is better this Government goes as early as possible", he said and declared that his party was ready to face polls.

Expressing satisfaction over his party's performance in the recently concluded zilla and taluk panchayat elections, he said despite paucity of time and resource crunch, it had performed well.

He said his party would continue its battle against JDS, which he termed as "controlled by Gowda family" and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Siddaramaiah said due to the support extended by his party the Congress managed to win more number of seats in the panchayat polls, a fact acknowledged by several Congress leaders.