Tipped to be kingmaker, HD Kumaraswamy of the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Saturday morning kept his cards close to his chest, telling reporters that he was not in touch with any party minutes before counting began for the Karnataka election results.
"In the next 2-3 hours, it will become clear. Exit polls show that the two national parties will score in a big way. The polls have given 30-32 seats to JD-S. I am a small party, there is no demand for me... I am hoping for a good development," he said.
"No one has contacted me till now. Let us see the final results first. According to the exit polls, there is no need for options. Let us see," the JD-S leader added.
Karnataka is still open to political pole vaults and acrobatics of arithmetic, his party indicated a day before election results, dismissing a declaration that it had taken a call on what to do in case it gets to play kingmaker.
"He (Tanveer Ahmed) is not our spokesperson, and he is not a member of our party. He is nothing, he has left us long back. We have not decided anything (on coalition government), we will wait for the results," the party's state chief CM Ibrahim told reporters on Friday.
Mr Ahmed had claimed on Thursday that the JD-S had received feelers from both Congress and the BJP as most exit polls predicted a hung assembly in Karnataka, and it has been decided who they will partner with. Mr Kumaraswamy is in Singapore, having left on Wednesday night.
"The decision is done. It's taken. We will announce it to the public when it is the right time to," he had said.
The Congress on Friday said it was still confident about forming a government on its own. The BJP too has denied it had contacted the JD-S and said it would get a clear mandate as well.
Results for the election are due on Saturday, but several exit polls have predicted that the Congress may have an edge in Karnataka, which is the BJP's southern citadel.
Depending on the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP is looking to break a 38-year-old poll jinx where the state has never voted the incumbent party to power, while the Congress is hoping for a victory that could give it much-needed momentum ahead of next year's national election.
Many pollsters have said the JD-S, led by Mr Kumaraswamy and his father, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, could emerge as a "kingmaker" or a "king" by holding the key to government formation, in the event of a stalemate, as it has done in the past.
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