New Delhi:
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy cut short his US visit and returned to Bengaluru on Sunday evening to hold emergency meeting with JD(S) MLAs after 13 legislators of the ruling Congress-Janata Dal(S) alliance resigned. Meanwhile, Congress’s trusted troubleshooter DK Shivakumar met JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda at his residence earlier in the day.
A cirular has been issued by the Congress to all MLAs to attend Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting called by CLP leader Siddaramaiah on July 9. Karnataka Congress in charge KC Venugopal and Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao will also be present in the meet.
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy arrived at HAL Airport in Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/F3lf2jhHGS
— ANI (@ANI) July 7, 2019
In all, 13 MLAs have submitted their resignations in the last one week. One of them happened to be a senior leader, former minister and long-time loyalist of the Congress party Ramalinga Reddy who had, on multiple occassions, expressed his disgruntlement over not being given a cabinet berth.
However, JD(S) MLA H Vishwanath said that 14 MLAs have jointly tendered their resignations to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar and requested him to accept them. The Speaker has not yet accepted their resignations.
After this dramatic turn of events, the state government appeared to have fallen into a minority forcing Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy.
The strength of the ruling coalition in Karnataka has come down to 105, which is eight short of the half-way mark of 113 for a majority.
Those MLAs, who resigned from the Assembly, include BC Patil, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda, S Hebbar, Mahesh Kumatalli, Gopalayya, Ramesh Jharkiholi, and Pratap Gowda Patil. The dissident MLAs have reached Mumbai and are staying in resorts.
The Congress leaders went into huddle after the development with AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal rushed to Bengaluru. He held several rounds of meeting with state Congress leaders including Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM G Parameshwara and DK Shivkumar on the crisis gripping the state's coalition government.
In New Delhi, senior leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Mallikarjun Kharge and Mukul Wasnik held an emergency meeting to assess the situation in the state.Â
