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All the Cabinet colleagues of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy have submitted their resignations, giving him a way out to save the coalition government from an imminent collapse.
On a day of hectic political activity, Kumaraswamy, who returned from a private visit to the US on Sunday, held several rounds of meetings with legislators from both the Congress and the JD(S) to take stock of the developments. It remains to be seen whether the Monsoon Session of the Assembly, expected to start on July 12, will be postponed because of the crisis in the government.
All the 21 Congress ministers tendered their resignation to KPCC President, Dinesh Gundu Rao, in the presence of AICC Karnataka in-charge KC Venugopal. Similarly, the 11 JDS ministers also put in their papers to give the chief minister a free hand to salvage the government.
Former chief minister and JDS-Congress co-ordination panel chief, Siddaramaiah, said that the Congress high command would take a final decision on the next course of action, and the grievances of the disgruntled MLAs would be looked into before recasting the State cabinet. Both Siddaramaiah and Venugopal blamed the BJP’s central leadership for the political crisis in the State.
Amid these developments, the coalition government received a further setback when two independent MLAs resigned from the ministry, announcing their support for the BJP. With their inclusion, the strength of the BJP in the Assembly has gone up to 107.
Meanwhile, BJP State unit president BS Yeddyurappa said he would launch a protest rally on Tuesday against the government as the coalition had lost majority in the Assembly and had no moral right to continue in office. On Saturday, 12 MLAs had tendered their resignation to the Speaker, leaving the JDS-Congress coalition government in deep crisis. The Speaker is expected to take a call on their resignations on Tuesday.
If the resignations of all 13 legislators in the 224-strong house are accepted, the strength of the Assembly will drop to 211. This will allow the BJP, which has the support of 106 legislators, including two independents, to stake a claim to form the government for the second time after last year’s Assembly polls.
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