2 K'taka Cong MLAs resign, Siddaramaiah calls emergency CLP meet

Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress leader Siddaramaiah has called an emergency meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at his residence on Monday after two party MLAs resigned from the state Assembly.

Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi resigned from the state assembly membership.

Singh said he submitted his resignation to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. However, Kumar said he was not aware of any such resignation, adding that no leader contacted him.

"Nobody has contacted or met me. I have got nothing to do with political developments and I will accept resignations even if 20 members resign. I'm not aware of any such resignation. I haven't met any leader, not even Anand Singh," Kumar told reporters in Kolar.

Later on Monday, Karnataka Congress MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi also resigned from the state assembly membership and submitted his resignation to the Speaker.

Congress leader and Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar said, “I can’t believe this has happened. He told me that he will not quit. He might have had personal problems.... He told me he had some problems.”

“I’m trying to reach him but I am not able to get through to him... I am shocked,” he added.

Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, on a personal visit to the United States, responded to the setback to his coalition. “I am watching all the developments from here. BJP is day dreaming to destabilise the government,” Kumaraswamy tweeted.

Anand Singh appeared to rebut this link to the BJP after his meeting with the Governor.

“There is no question of me falling prey to Operation Lotus of the BJP. I had said earlier that I was ready to resign to uphold the rights of my people,” he said, insisting that his resignation was driven by his conscience and the welfare of his constituents and not politics.

Former chief minister and BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa said he had heard of the resignation through the news and had no further information on it. “I know for certain that there are 20 dissidents in the coalition. We will have to wait and see what they do and take a call on whether to stake a claim to form the government after that,” he said.

"Even I have heard about his (Anand Singh's) resignation through media. We don't want to destabilise the government... If the government falls on own its own, we will explore the possibilities of forming the new government but there is no question of fresh elections," Yeddyurappa was quoted as saying by NDTV.

Earlier this year, a scuffle had taken place between Singh and his party colleague JN Ganesh.

An MLA from Kampli, Ganesh had allegedly assaulted Singh on January 19 following a heated argument at a resort near Bengaluru.

Singh was later admitted to a hospital, while Ganesh was suspended on the directions of state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Singh's resignation comes at a time when cracks seem to appear in the Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress coalition in the state.

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.