BENGALURU: With all 30 ministers of the Janata Dal(S)-Congress government nudged into putting in their papers on Monday after a breakfast meeting at the residence of Deputy Chief Minister Dr G. Parameshwar, leaders of both parties went into overdrive to save their 14-month old government.
If three Congress MLAs submit their resignation, the ruling party will be further reduced to 101 in the Assembly.
In a behind the scenes bid at damage control, Mr Kumaraswamy met former minister R. Ramalinga Reddy at an undisclosed location and tried to persuade him to withdraw his resignation letter. Mr Ramalinga Reddy reportedly told Mr Kumaraswamy that he would not withdraw his resignation, nor would he take up any assignment, and had not yet decided if he wanted to come back to the Congress fold.
In a shock development, Mr H Nagesh and Mr R Shankar, both independents close to the JD(S), who were inducted into the cabinet two weeks ago as part of the strategy to ensure stability of the government, handed in their resignation letters to Governor Vajubhai Vala, and announced support for the BJP.
State BJP President B.S. Yeddyurappa meanwhile has informed his party MLAs that they would receive ‘good news’ in a day or two and asked all of them to remain in Bengaluru. Addressing the BJP Legislature Party meeting, Mr Yeddyurappa said the saffron party’s ‘Vanavasa’ will come to an end in two days.
Speaker Ramesh Kumar has to take a decision on the MLAs’ resignations on Tuesday, he said. “ Mr Kumaraswamy should resign and leave on his own. His father H.D. Deve Gowda preaches political morality to all, why can’t he tell his son to resign since the coalition government has lost its majority following the resignation of 13 MLAs,” Mr Yeddyurappa said.
“Our leaders and workers will protest on Tuesday demanding the resignation of the CM. Meanwhile we have got the support of two Independent MLAs and our strength is increased to 107 in the Assembly,” he said.
