BENGALURU: Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh on Monday dropped a bomb on the Congress-JDS coalition by resigning from the assembly. After Umesh Jadhav, Singh is the second coalition MLA to resign in a span of three months. Speaking to the media in Bengaluru, he confirmed that he has submitted his resignation.
"Yes, I have resigned. I have submitted my resignation. I am going to meet Governor Vajubhai Vala now. I will brief you with more details once I meet the Governor. I have resigned," Anand Singh told the media.
The Congress MLA who landed in a hospital after being thrashed by fellow legislator N Ganesh, is said to be miffed over the party revoking Ganesh's suspension as well as the land deal involving JSW in Ballari. Speaker Ramesh Kumar has been denying since morning receiving any resignation.
The development comes at a time when Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is on a tour in the United States. Kumaraswamy, however, took to Twitter to once again accuse the BJP of attempting to topple his coalition government but said such attempts would be futile. "I am not sure of any resignation. I have already said that the BJP won't make attempts to topple this government and that stands true even now," BS Yeddyurappa, state president BJP said.
Meanwhile, other dissenting MLAs like Bheema Naik took to Twitter to assert that he has not resigned from his post.
It takes15 MLAs to bring down coalition govt: M B Patil
Belagavi: Reacting to the development which is likely to shake up the state politics in Karnataka, home minister M B Patil said that it takes at least 15 MLAs to quit their seats to bring down the coalition government. Calling the possibility 'highly impossible', Patil said BJP's efforts to resort to another round of 'Operation Lotus' to destabilise the stat government will not materialise.
The home minister further added that the disgruntled MLA has not met him so far to either lodge a complaint about Jindal land deal or write any letters to him on the issue.
"Chairman of Coalition Coordination Committee Siddaramaiah and President of KPCC Dr G Parameshwara would pacify all the disgruntled party legislators," he told the media in Belagavi.
Congress Minister Satish Jarkiholi said here that Anand Singh may have resigned over the Jindal issue and nothing else. According to him, Anand Singh's resignation is not linked to the team of disgruntled MLAs of the party who indulged in several anti-party activities over the past few months headed by MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi.
"The coalition government remained stable and unaffected even as 12 Congress MLAs went to a Mumbai hotel to carry out anti-party activities in an attempt to destabilise the government a few months ago,'' Jarkiholi said. The minister even made a phone call to Athani MLA Mahesh Kumathalli in front of the media persons asking him whether he too was submitting his resignation.
Kumathalli, a close associate of rebel Congress MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi said, he was in Bengaluru and would never resign. He expressed confidence that the coalition government would remain stable irrespective of whether some MLAs resigned or not.
In the recently held Lok Sabha polls, Congress and the JD(S) failed to make a mark with BJP bagging 25 of the 28 seats along with an Independent backed by it leaving just one seat each to the coalition partners.
Earlier this month, Congress leader KH Muniyappa had said his party will contest alone in the local body elections next year.
The statement had come days after JD(S) president HD Deve Gowda lashed out the "Congress' behaviour" while claiming that mid-term elections would "no doubt" be held in the state. "There is no doubt that there will be mid-term polls. They (Congress) said they will support us for five years but look at their behaviour now. Our people are smart," he had said.
However, the former prime minister later downplayed his comments, saying his remark was about the local body elections and not for the Assembly polls.