New Delhi:
As crisis deepen in Karnataka, a meeting is underway at Congress MP DK Suresh’s residence. According to reports, K K Venugopal and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar are part of the meeting where they are in process of persuading rebel MLA Muniratna. Besides, two MLAs Somashekar and Shivaram, have demanded that if Congress leader Siddaramaiah is made the chief minister of Karnataka, they would take back their resignation. Both the MLAs are close to Siddaramaiah. Also reportedly, Congress MLA and former Karnataka Home Minister Ramalinga Reddy has been offered ministerial post as per his wishes.
If the fours MLAs stay, crisis for now may be over for the ruling coalition government in the state.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, "the BJP is trying to sabotage non-BJP governments. They want to weaken regional parties. This is not right... The centre is directly involved in the turmoil.” As the Assembly session starts on July 12, Kharge said the party is in still in touch with them. "We will get a clear picture on the July 12," he added.
Reddy, earlier, had said he had no complaints against the Congress high command and expressed disappointment with the functioning of the State Congress since he was “side lined” in the party.
On Saturday, 11 legislators of the ruling alliance submitted their resignation at the Speaker's office on Saturday. Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar was not in his office when the legislators went there to submit their resignation, sources said. Later, Kumar told reporters in Bengaluru that 11 legislators submitted their resignation at his office.
The legislators then also met the governor at the Raj Bhavan before being flown out to a five-star hotel in Mumbai on a private jet.
The MLAs who were seen at the Speaker's office include, Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Pratap Gowda Patil (Maski), Shivram Hebbar (Yellapur), Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), B C Patil (Hirekerur), Byratibasavaraj (K R Puram), S T Soma Shekar (Yashwanthpur) and Ramalinga reddy (BTM Layout) of the Congress. The JD(S) MLAs are A H Vishwanath (Hunsur), who recently resigned as party's state chief, Narayana Gowda (K R Pet), and Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout).
Union Minister and senior BJP leader DV Sadananda Gowda said the BJP is ready to form the government in Karnataka if it received an invitation from the governor.
The Congress accused the BJP of trying to bring down its coalition government in Karnataka by "buying" MLAs and asserted that the new word for the 'aaya ram, gaya ram' phenomenon is "MODI -- mischievously orchestrated defections in India".
Senior leaders of the Congress, including Mallikarjuna Kharge, A K Antony, Ahmed Patel, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Randeep Surjewala and Anand Sharma, met to deliberate the political situation arising out of the resignations of MLAs in Karnataka.
"The new word for 'aaya ram gaya ram' is MODI -- mischievously orchestrated defections in India," Congress's chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters, taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
