Friday, January 20 2006 14:20 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh today (Jan 20,2006) accused the Janata Dal (JD) Secular (S) rebel leader H D Kumaraswamy of forcibly 'taking away' the MLAs to toe his line to destabilize the coalition Government and termed it as 'nothing but horsetrading'.

In his first attack against Kumaraswamy after he led the revolt to bring the Congress-JDS government on the brink of collapse, Singh told reporters,

"They (the MLAs) are not free. They are doing it at the behest of Kumaraswamy," he said.

Singh also ruled out any negotiations with the Kumaraswamy faction but said he was willing to talk to Gowda, to whom he gave a clean chit, saying, "Whatever be the public opinion that Gowda is with his son, I don't share that view".

He rebutted Kumaraswamy's charge against his Government of 'ill-treating' his partymen, asserting he was 'fair' to all.

"I don't want to comment on such allegations. People know how I behaved and gave good governance", Singh said.

Kumaraswamy has said that it was the 'insult' to his partymen that prompted him to raise the banner of revolt and pull out of the coalition Government.

"Even if there were to be a one-party run Government, resentment is bound to occur among its partymen on various issues including transfer of officials", Singh said, rejecting the charge that JDS legislators were ignored by the Congress.