Bengaluru: The crisis in the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government worsened on Tuesday with suspended Shivajinagar Congress MLA R Roshan Baig too submitting his resignation from the Assembly to Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, taking the total number of MLAs who have quit to 14.
The Speaker said that after going through the resignation letters, he had found that only five of the 13 letters (barring Mr Baig's) are in order while the other letters are not in the prescribed format. The eight legislators have to submit their resignation letters afresh to the speaker.
Mr Ramesh Kumar told reporters that the resignation letters of Vijaynagar MLA Anand Singh, KR Pete JD(S) MLA Narayana Gowda, Mahalakshmipuram MLA of JD(S), N Gopalaiah, Maski Congress MLA Pratap Gouda Patil and BTM Layout Congress MLA Ramalinga Reddy were in the prescribed form. However, the resignations of Mr S.T. Somashekar, Mr N Muniratna, Mr Bhairathi Suresh, Mr B.C. Patil, Mr Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mr Shivaram Hebbar, Mr Mahesh Kumatallil and Mr A.H. Vishwanath were not in prescribed form and they have to submit it afresh.
The Speaker also said he would like to have a personal hearing with the five MLAs whose letters are in order before deciding on them. Accordingly, Mr Anand Singh, Mr Pratap Gouda Patil and Mr Narayanagowda will be asked to appear before him on July 12 at 3 pm. Since it is a public holiday on July 13 and 14 on account of Second Saturday and Sunday respectively, Mr Gopalaiah and Mr Ramalinga Reddy will be informed to come for a hearing on July 15.
In the meantime, people from various sections of society like farmers, small traders and others have submitted petitions seeking rejection of the MLAs' resignation owing to severe drought and the fact that another election within a year would involve a lot of expenditure. These petitions would also be looked, the Speaker said.
Mr Ramesh Kumar also said CLP Leader Siddaramaiah and KPCC President Dinesh Gundurao have given a letter seeking action on a petition filed in January this year against a group of Congress MLAs led by Mr Ramesh Jarkiholi. His office could not proceed with the petition as they were busy with the budget session. Another petition has now been filed by the Congress seeking disqualification of those MLAs (except Mr Baig, Mr Ramalinga Reddy and Mr Anand Singh).The Speaker also said he has received letters from the governor on the resignation of ministers Mr H Nagesh, and Mr R Shankar and their decision to support the BJP. Even as two ministers, Mr Krishna Byregowda and Mr K.J. George were inside the Speaker's chamber, Mr Roshan Baig arrived and handed over his letter of resignation. Later, he told reporters that no Congress leader had tried to prevent him from tendering his resignation. "I am not going to either Mumbai or Delhi. But I will be out of town as chairman of the Haj Committee," he said.
After some time, a group of Congress leaders led by Mr Siddaramaiah came to the Speaker's chamber and submitted a fresh petition seeking disqualification of the MLAs who have resigned.
