India's IT hub state plunged into political crisis

BANGALORE, India, (Reuters)

The coalition government in India's Karnataka state, home to the global IT city of Bangalore, could fall after a key ally withdrew support in a power-sharing row on Saturday.

The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was pulling out of the government as the Janata Dal (Secular) or JD (S) party, which leads the coalition, is not handing power to the BJP for the next 20 months, as was agreed between the two.

Leaders of the BJP, which has 79 legislators in the 224-member state legislature, will meet Governor Rameshwar Thakur on Sunday and formally withdraw support, they said.

This will reduce the government to a minority and could force Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to resign if he is not able to save the government with the help of the Congress, the other big party in the state which has 65 lawmakers.

If all efforts to save the government fail, fresh elections could be held in the state of which Bangalore, the city of more than 1,500 Indian and global IT firms, is the capital.

"This is a worst kind of betrayal in (the) political history of India," senior BJP leader Venkaiah Naidu said.