Rebel Karnataka legislators, who moved to Mumbai after resigning on Saturday, have refused to withdraw their resignations, ANI reported on Sunday.
Congress MLA ST Somashekar, one of the rebel legislators in Mumbai, said there was no question of going back to Bengaluru and withdrawing the resignations. “We 13 MLAs submitted our resignation to the speaker and informed the governor, we are all together,” he said outside Sofitel Hotel in the city.
Fourteen MLAs of the Congress and the Janhave. However, all the resignations have not been accepted by Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.
Somashekar said 10 MLAs were in Mumbai at present. “Ramalinga Reddy, Munirathna and Anand Singh will join us tomorrow [Monday],” The News Minute quoted him as saying. “Under no circumstance will the 13 MLAs go back on our decision to withdraw our resignation letters. We have been hearing in the media that some of us are willing to withdraw our resignation letters. This is not true.”
Somashekar claimed the rebel legislators had expressed disillusionment with the HD Kumaraswamy administration but had not demanded the chief minister’s removal. “We have not demanded that Kumaraswamy be replaced with another CM,” he said. “That was never our demand. We will not go back on our decision. On paper, the coalition may still be together but the government had already toppled 10 days ago. We aired our grievances and we also informed our leaders that we would quit.”
Amid speculation that the Congress was likely to seek the appointment of Mallikarjun Kharge or Siddaramaiah as chief minister, Kumaraswamy’s brother HD Revanna and Congress leaders met to save the coalition.
“We have held discussions and there has been nothing on a change of leadership,” Revanna said, according to The Indian Express. Congress leader DK Shivakumar said he was not willing to consider a replacement for Kumaraswamy. “I am not willing to backstab Kumaraswamy by saying make someone else the CM – it is left to the party,” he added. “I am willing to sacrifice my post to save the government.”
CM may seek to postpone legislature session
Kumaraswamy, who returned to Bengaluru on Sunday night from the United States, held a series of meetings with senior Congress leaders, including All India Congress Committee General Secretary KC Venugopal, Kharge and Siddaramaiah, and Janata Dal (Secular) leaders. He was expected to address the Janata Dal (Secular) Legislature Party meeting.
Kumaraswamy is likely to convene an emergency meeting of the Cabinet on Monday to send a resolution to Governor Vajubhai Vala, seeking the postponement of the Monsoon session of the legislature, The Hindu reported. It is scheduled to begin on July 12.
“As of now, leaders of the JD(S)-Congress coalition feel there is a dire need to get some time to work towards strategies to save the government,” an unidentified official close to the chief minister told The Hindu. “In this context, the chief minister is considering the possibility of postponing the legislature session on the grounds that there is uncertainty as Speaker Ramesh Kumar has sought time to look into the resignations.”
Congress leaders also held a series of meetings that went on till late in the night on Sunday. The party is reportedly considering a fresh Cabinet by instructing all its ministers to resign. The ministers are likely to be informed about this at a breakfast meeting on Monday convened by Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara. The party has called a meeting of its legislators on July 9.
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