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Beleaguered Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh will the vote of confidence in the Assembly later in the day, amidst indications that JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda's last-ditch efforts to wean party rebels away from BJP have failed.
Sources informed that Gowda met his son H D Kumaraswamy along with rebel MLAs for two and half hours in bid to save the 20-month old Congress-JDS government but could not coax him to change the course.
Both Gowda and Kumarswamy refused to speak to newsmen on the outcome of the meeting Thursday evening, at which family members were also present.
JD(S) spokesman Y S V Datta maintained the discussions were inconclusive.
Intensifying its efforts, Congress rushed its General Secretary A K Antony who however said there was a "very big question mark" on the survival of the coalition government.
Antony, in charge of party affairs in Karnataka, met the Chief Minister and spoke to Gowda on phone and later said Congress was keen on continuing its relations with JD(S) and see completion of full term by the state's first ever coalition government.
He said in Bangalore that he had come to save the government, if possible.
In the 224-member assembly, BJP has 79 members and its electoral ally JD(U) five.
Together with 39 rebels and five independents supporting them, both could muster 128 MLAs, well above the 113 mark to command majority.
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