From the archive record
The Karnataka Chief Minister Mr. J. H. Patel was busy this week staving off a concerted attempt by Janata Dal dissidents to effect a change in the state leadership. This crisis which has been brewing for some time now took a serious turn when the former prime minister and the Janata Dal leader Mr. H. D. Deve Gowda in effect became the rallying point for the disgruntled party workers and legislators. Analysts were quick to ask whether Mr. Deve Gowda was, in fact, trying to recapture a political base in 1999 which seemed in the recent past fast slipping away from his grasp. Although the chief minister and senior Janata Dal leader Mr. J. H. Patel was confident he would be able to muster the positive vote of confidence on the floor of the assembly dissident legislators wanted to shift the batt