Rebels: We won’t withdraw our papers, won’t return to B’luru now

Bengaluru: Rebel Congress MLAs now camping in Mumbai, cateogorically said they will not withdraw their resignations nor will they participate in the ongoing monsoon session of the Karnataka Legislature.

Addressing a joint news conference in Mumbai on Sunday, Mr S.T. Somashekar and Mr M.T.B. Nagaraj said they said all 13 Congress and three JD(S) MLAs are united and will not return to Bengaluru at this juncture nor should any leader come to Mumbai as they did not want to talk with anyone. Chikkaballapura Congress MLA K. Sudhakar who is in Delhi, would be joining them Sunday night, they said.

Asserting that the decision to resign from the Assembly is final, they said some vested interests were spreading rumours that a few MLAs wanted to go back to Bengaluru to support the trust vote to be moved by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and asserted that these reports were 'false' and 'baseless.'

The MLAs claimed they were treated like trash after the coalition government came to power and none of their projects were cleared by the CM. Their letters seeking funds to take up development works in their constituencies were not considered. Their problems were not addressed either by the CM or Dy CM hief Minister Dr G Parameshwar with even CLP Leader Mr Siddaramaiah and AICC General Secretary Mr K.C. Venugopal turning a blind eye, they said.

Mr Nagaraj was Housing Minister only for name-sake as PWD Minister H.D. Revanna interfered in his portfolio and carried out transfers without bringing them to his notice, said the rebels adding though, Mr Kumaraswamy was informed about this, nothing was done to prevent Mr Revanna from meddling in other departments.

They claimed that some Congress leaders manhandled Dr K. Sudhakar while he was coming out of the Speaker's chamber after tendering his resignation. This incident took place in front of KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao but he did nothing to prevent it which pained them a lot, they said. “We are ready to support any party which is ready to implement some of the important developmental works in our constituencies. Development has come to a standstill with no fund flow since the last one year. We have suffered in silence all these days, not anymore.”

Meanwhile, JD(S) MLA, Mr A.H. Vishwanath said the Deve Gowda family has enjoyed power all these years including the posts of prime minister, chief minister, minister and legislators. In view of the prevailing constitutional crisis in the state, Mr Deve Gowda has to take a sensitive decision.

“We are not dissatisfied legislators, we have resigned due to our dissatisfaction with the coalition government,” he added.