The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre is directly involved with the political crisis in Karnataka, alleged senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday, 7 July, after 12 Congress-JD(S) MLAs approached Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar with their resignations on Saturday.
However since the Speaker was not in his chamber, nine MLAs submitted their resignations to the Office of the Speaker before leaving for Raj Bhavan to meet the governor.
Kharge blamed the BJP for targeting the states with non-BJP governments and said, “Centre is directly involved in the turmoil... BJP is trying to kill democracy. The Congress will not tolerate this.”
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He also said that the Congress is in touch with disgruntled MLAs and the party will try to convince them to stay. Kharge also responded to the speculations that he could be the next chief minister and said that these are all “rumours” which are being “fed to the press”.
He also said that a clearer picture will emerge on 12 July.
The rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs have been moved to Sofitel Hotel in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex.
‘Govt Will Survive,’ Says Siddaramaiah
Meanwhile, Congress leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that he is in touch with five-six MLAs but he can’t divulge all details.
Siddaramaiah too blamed the BJP for the defections, “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.”
Meanwhile, BJP state unit President BS Yeddyurappa has distanced his party from the ongoing crisis and said that the party is nowhere related to this.
With the latest round of resignations, the coalition Congress-JD(S) government is teetering on the edge. The BJP has 105 MLAs in the 224-seat Assembly. The Congress and JD(S) have 118 MLAs in the Assembly. But these defections will bring down the JD(S) and Congress numbers down to 105 and the majority mark down to 106 from 113.
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who is on a private trip to the US, is coming back in the wake of the political turmoil in the state.
(With inputs from ANI)
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