Karnataka: 11 Congress-JDS MLAs resigned; demand Siddaramaiah to be made CM

11 legislators of Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government,eight from the Congress and three from the JD(S) – submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Saturday, bringing the government to the brink of collapse. The Congress MLAs who submitted their resignations are former home minister and seven-time MLA Ramalinga Reddy, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathahalli, ST Somashekhar, BA Basavaraj, BC Patil, Pratapgouda Patil, and Shivaram Hebbar, the Speaker’s office confirmed. The three JD(S) MLAs were AH Vishwanath, who resigned as the party’s state president last month, K Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda. MLAs who submitted their resignations on Saturday, have demanded that if Congress leader Siddaramaiah is made the chief minister of Karnataka, they would take back their resignation. As of now, four MLAs have made this demand. However, only three out of the four MLAs namely Somashekar, Basavaraj and Shivaram, who are making the demand have resigned, while the resignation of the fourth MLA, Muniratna, is not yet confirmed.

Eleven Congress and JDS MLAs on Saturday reached Karnataka assembly Speaker's office in the Vidhana Soudha to submit their resignation to the secretary of the Speaker's Office since the Speaker was not present at the moment. Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar said that 11 legislators submitted their resignation at his office. "...11 of them have submitted resignation letters. I told officials to take the letters and issue acknowledgment. Tomorrow the office will be closed...Monday I have prior engagement, so on Tuesday I will go to office and take further action, in accordance with rules," he said. To a question on the future of the government, Kumar said, "Let's wait and see, I have nothing to do with it." "Whether the government will fall or survive, it will be decided in the Assembly...," he added. On the Karanataka assembly crisis, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader DV Sadananda Gowda said, "They thought it's high time to come out of that party and resigned from legislators post as they felt that continuing as MLAs was not good in the larger interest of their constituency and state." On being asked if the BJP will form government in Karnataka, DV Sadananda Gowda said, "Governor is the supreme authority, as per the constitutional mandate if he calls us, certainly we are ready to form the government. We are the single largest party, we have got 105 people with us."