‘No threat to govt’, insists Siddaramaiah after 12 Karnataka MLAs resign

Senior Congress leader and former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday said that there was no threat to the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government in the state.

Twelve MLAs of the ruling coalition handed their resignations to the assembly speaker. Out of the 12 legislators who submitted their resignations to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, nine were from the Congress and three from the JD(S).

“This clearly shows that BJP is behind all these defections. It is Operation Kamala...Everything is fine. Don’t worry. Govt will survive, there is no threat to the govt,” Siddaramaiah was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The Congress accused the BJP of trying to topple the coalition government by “buying” MLAs, but the BJP dismissed the charge saying it had nothing to do with the resignations and the internal feud between the ruling allies was responsible for the political instability in the state.

The nine Congress MLAs who submitted their resignations were Reddy (a former home minister), Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathahalli, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraj, BC Patil, Pratapgouda Patil, Shivaram Hebbar, and Munirathna, the Speaker’s office said. The three JD(S) MLAs were AH Vishwanath, who resigned as the party’s state president just last month, K Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda. The MLAs flew to Mumbai in the evening on a chartered flight.

The MLAs weren’t able to meet the Karnataka assembly speaker on Saturday and left their resignations with aides in his office.

The troubled ruling coalition, which has a strength of 118 in the 224-member Assembly, faces the risk of losing majority if the resignations are accepted.

The latest development came at a time when both chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy and Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao are out of India. Kumaraswamy is in the US and Gundu Rao in Europe on personal visits. Kumaraswamy is expected to return Sunday.