Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said on Tuesday that he would resign “happily”. He made the remark in the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru, where the impasse over a trust vote is still going on.

“The other day, a channel ran a story saying we are pushing for load shedding...CM was pushing the state into darkness,” the chief minister said. “Should I have become the CM to get such a certificate? Today, I am ready to quit happily.”

“I apologise to Opposition and voters for keeping them waiting,” Kumaraswamy said, according to News9, referring to the trust vote. “I’m fed up of the current political developments. I’m ready to sacrifice my post.”

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“We have delivered on our promises every single time,” he claimed. “I extended support to Kodagu flood victims. I did not sideline constituencies who did not vote for us. I don’t believe in superstitions, I work based on my intuition,” Kumaraswamy said.

The Bengaluru Police imposed Section 144 in the city on from 6 pm on Tuesday. Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code bars the gathering of four or more people. The police said all bars, pubs and wine shops would remain closed in the city till 6 pm on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party supporters clashed in Bengaluru on Tuesday, NDTV reported. The clashes began when workers of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) allegedly tried to remove two independent MLAs who were at a house at Race Course Road in Bengaluru. Congress workers had reached the spot in the afternoon, with the intent of taking the independent MLAs to the Vidhana Soudha for the trust vote. However, BJP workers intervened, and the two groups came to blows. The police arrested around 100 workers of both parties and took them into preventive custody.

Currently, the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition, minus its 16 rebel MLAs, has a strength of 100 in the Karnataka Assembly. The BJP, plus two independents, has a strength of 107.