Bengaluru, Dec 29: Taking a dig at BJP leaders, who were "expecting" the Congress-JDS coalition government to fall, JDS leader D C Thamanna has drawn an analogy between them and the 'street dogs' while refuting BJP lawmaker Umesh Katti's claim that the dispensation would collapse soon.

Katti had recently claimed that 15 disgruntled MLAs of the ruling coalition were in touch with him and that the saffron party would form the new government in Karnataka by next week.

Hitting out at Katti, Thammana said, "J H Patel (a former chief minister) had once narrated a story in the state assembly about an elephant and street dogs. He recalled Patel saying an elephant was walking ahead of street dogs who were hoping something would fall from atop the tusker that they would eat.

"Neither did the food fall, nor the dogs got something to eat. This story fits perfectly with BJP leaders, who are expecting this government to fall," the Karnataka Minister told reporters on Friday at Maddur near Mysuru.

Replying to a query, Thamanna said Katti has been predicting the government's fall "today or tomorrow" for quite some time.

"For the past seven months, we are hearing this every day but this has not materialised," he said.

Soon after Katti's claim, state BJP chief and Leader of the Opposition B S Yeddyurappa had ruled out any attempt by his party to destabilise the present dispensation.

He said his party would take an "appropriate decision" if there was political instability in the state.

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Mumbai (PTI): Mahayuti alliance's new government in Maharashtra will be formed on December 5 with Devendra Fadnavis emerging as the frontrunner to become the next chief minister again, a senior BJP leader said on Saturday.

In the November 20 Maharashtra assembly polls, the Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Ajit Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) retained power, pocketing a whopping 230 of the 288 assembly seats. The BJP emerged as the single largest party, winning 132 seats, followed by Shiv Sena with 57 and NCP with 41 seats.

However, even after the announcement of poll results a week ago (on November 23), the formation of the government has been delayed as the tripartite alliance is yet to decide on who will be the next chief minister. Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar met BJP president J P Nadda and Union minister Amit Shah late Thursday to discuss a power-sharing pact for the next government.

A key Mahayuti meeting scheduled on Friday was put off and likely to take place on Sunday now as caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde headed to his native village in Satara district, delaying government formation further.

The BJP leader, who did not wish to be quoted, said the swearing-in of the new government will take place on December 5.

Senior BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis, who was the chief minister twice and deputy chief minister in the last government, is the frontrunner for the top post, the leader said.

Another senior BJP leader said the chief minister's swearing-in ceremony will take place at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai.

But before that, a meeting will be held on December 2 to pick the BJP legislature party leader, he said.

Caretaker CM Shinde has made it clear that he will fully support BJP leadership's decision to name the next CM, and that he won't be a hurdle in the process, while Ajit Pawar-led NCP has backed Fadnavis for the chief minister's post.

In the assembly elections, Congress-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) suffered a setback. The grand old party registered one of its worst performances in the state assembly polls after it won only 16 seats. Sharad Pawar's NCP (SP) could bag only 10 seats, whereas Uddhav Thackeray's (UBT) won 20.