Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday clarified that the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress’ coalition government will successfully complete its five-year term and any talks about the mid-term elections is irrelevant, PTI reported. Kumaraswamy made the comments after a video of his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy, asking Janata Dal (Secular) workers to prepare for Assembly polls went viral on social media on Thursday.

In a statement, the Karnataka chief minister said that Nikhil Kumaraswamy was just trying to cheer up workers and asking them to always be ready to serve the society. “Not only during elections, they should always keep the party in a state of activeness so as to win the election whenever it comes,” he said. “This statement of his has been quoted out of context by the media to represent that there may be election anytime.”

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On Thursday, Nikhil Kumaraswamy was heard in the video, telling party workers to start preparing from now. “We should not say we will do it later. We have to prepare from the next month onwards,” he was heard as saying.

In the video, Nikhil Kumaraswamy was also heard assuring the workers that HD Kumaraswamy would complete his tenure and there was “no threat to the government.” His remarks came a day after Karnataka unit president of the Janata Dal (Secular) AH Vishwanath resigned from his post. Vishwanath was allegedly unhappy about not being consulted about candidates for the urban local body elections.

Meanwhile, Karnataka Bharatiya Janata Party Chief BS Yeddyurappa on Friday asked the coalition government to give up power if they cannot run the government so that the saffron party can take over. “Kumaraswamy’s son [Nikhil] has asked JD[S] workers to prepare for election,” he said. “I’m saying that there won’t be election at any cost. It has been just a year [since Assembly elections]. We [BJP] have 105 legislators, if they can, let them govern, if they can’t let them give up, we will govern.”

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The Gowda family had suffered a major setback in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after former prime minister and Janata Dal (Secular) President HD Devegowda, who contested from Tumkur, and his grandson Nikhil Kumaraswamy, the party’s candidate from Mandya, both lost the elections.

Ever since its creation in May 2018, the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) has shared a rocky relationship as rumours of its imminent collapse have been doing the rounds for a while. Last month, after the results of the Lok Sabha elections were announced, former Congress legislator KN Rajanna had predicted that the coalition would break apart by June 10.

Currently, the BJP has 105 MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly while the Congress-JD(S) coalition has 116 MLAs and the support of two Independent legislators and a Bahujan Samaj Party MLA. In the Lok Sabha elections, the saffron party won 25 of the 28 seats in the state.