New Delhi: Dharam Singh was sworn in as the 17th Chief Minister of the Karnataka on May 28, 2004. Ever since, he had been under fire from the coalition ally, JD (S).
Dharam Singh, who has consecutively won eight times from the backward Jewargi assembly seat, has earned himself a sobriquet 'Ajat Shatru' - the man without enemies.
HD Deve Gowda and his son Kumaraswamy targetted him on numerous occasions, but Singh ignored their provocations each time. And instead of retaliating, the minister preferred to quote urdu couplets.
For the past 20 months, however, Singh had been treading on the thin line. On the one hand, Deve Gowda and company set punishing deadlines for him on issues like cabinet expansion and state committee threated to pull out if their demands were not met, and on the other, he had to toe the line set by Congress high command.
He did slip a few times. For instance, in March 2005, the opposition charged Singh of leaking state secrets to Deve Gowda. Also, Deve Gowda's rambling against the IT industry further emabrassed his government.
It may be said that Singh had been sort of a compromise candidate, a flexible politician who could stretch to suit the coalition demands.
And this was a role Singh played to the hilt, until last week, when Kumaraswamy decided that nothing but the chief minister's chair would do for him.
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