Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa met MLCs on Wednesday ahead of the first Council session.
The Karnataka Legislative Council conducted its first session today since the disturbing incident of December 15 last year, when its Deputy Chairperson SL Dharmegowda of the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) was pulled off the Chairperson's seat by Congress MLAs. Days later he was found dead, allegedly by suicide.
With the election to the Deputy Chairperson's seat due on Friday, tomorrow, the ruling BJP and the Janata Dal Secular (JDS) - part of the opposition - seem to have has come to an understanding.
The HD Devegowda-led party has promised support to the BJP which plans to continue with the no-confidence motion against the Council Chairperson of the upper house, where no one party has majority.
The Chairperson's post is held by Congress leader Prabhat Chandra Shetty.
The moving of the motion is likely tomorrow, and the support of JDS's 12 MLCs to BJP's 31 will be crucial for Mr Shetty's removal from the post in the 77-seat House.
If he is removed, a fresh election is likely to take place soon.
The BJP and JDS, both, are keen to grab the post. However, while the JDS says that both parties have come to a mutual decision, the BJP says the matter is still being discussed.
"We are not going to float a candidate for the deputy chairman's post as there is an agreement between the BJP and the JDS. We had a meeting with the Chief Minister yesterday and it was decided that the BJP will support JDS for the Chairmanship, and the JDS will support the BJP's Deputy Chairman candidate," JDS's Basavaraj Horatti, who is also the party's choice for the Chairman's post, said.
However, KS Eshwarappa of the BJP did not sound quite so definite. "Decision has not been taken yet. We will sit and discuss this," he said.
The Congress, which has 29 MLCs, seems to have made its peace with the situation but called out the JDS's opportunism.
"The BJP-JDS combination is one that shows the opportunistic intention of the JDS. They are shifting their base to the communal BJP and the JDS will lose the secular base they have in Karnataka," Congress MLC Prakash Rathod told NDTV.