Karnataka Congress MLA DK Shivakumar and JD(S) MLA Shivalinge Gowda have arrived in Mumbai to hold talks with the rebel Congress MLAs. The rebel MLAs flew to Mumbai last week after submitting their resignations.
The rebel leaders have approached the Mumbai Police saying they are feeling ‘threatened’. They claim that the leaders from their state would ‘storm’ the hotel where they are staying. The leaders have expressed that they do not wish to meet them and requested police to not allow them to enter the hotel.
Maharashtra State Reserve Police Force and Riot Control Police are deployed outside the hotel. Meanwhile, Mumbai Police has said that Shivakumar and Gowda will not be allowed to meet the rebel MLAs.
Yesterday, the Karnataka state assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar has rejected the resignations of 8 out of 13 rebel Congress MLAs because they were not in the ‘prescribed format’. The BJP MLAs who had gone to the Vidhan Soudha to meet the Speaker left without meeting him as he was ‘not there’. The speaker has asked for six days’ time to decide on resignations.
The JD(S) also accused the BJP of ‘buying’ MLAs in Karnataka for Rs 1,000 crore. Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded that Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy should resign. Today they will protest at the Gandhi statue in Vidhan Soudha in Karnataka today.
The unholy alliance
Karnataka government has been threatening to collapse ever since the H D Kumaraswamy government sworn in in May last year. The unholy alliance was forged after May 2018 state assembly elections after the BJP which emerged as single largest party with 104 seats could not form a majority in the 222 seat state assembly. Congress and JD(S) had 78 and 38 seats respectively.
The Governor had invited the BJP to form the government since it was the single largest party and B S Yeddyurappa swore in as the chief minister. Congress went to the Supreme Court but the apex court did not entertain the petition. Eventually Yeddyurappa resigned as CM after claiming he did not have the majority. Eventually the Congress-JD(S) led coalition government was formed on May 23.