Karnataka: All Cong, JD(S) ministers resign to make way for rebel MLAs, Cabinet reshuffle on cards

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This decision was taken at a breakfast meeting of Congress ministers at Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara’s residence. The meeting was attended by CLP leader Siddaramaiah and AICC general secretary K C Venugopal among others. Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy held discussions with Congress leaders after the meeting.

“For the larger interest of the party, yesterday and today, we had detailed discussions with senior leaders and ministers. Today morning, we met the ministers. In the prevailing condition, the ministers themselves voluntarily resigned ministership as far as the Congress ministers are concerned,” PTI quoted Venugopal as saying.

In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, calling them “dictators and traitors of this vibrant country.” He also requested the MLAs who have resigned to help “save the government”.

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“.@BJP4India is a disgrace to our country & they have no respect for Parliamentary democracy. RSS did not respect freedom movement & BJP is not respecting our constitution. They are pseudo nationalists with the ulterior motive of destabilizing India’s unity. @BJP4India had been trying to destabilize since last one year & this is their sixth attempt. They will surely fail again & will have to face the wrath of the public. They are unable to digest the fact that our coalition govt is trying to ensure social justice & regional balance,” Siddaramaiah wrote on Twitter.

@BJP4India is misusing central govt & its agencies to threaten our MLAs. It is not just by @BJP4Karnataka leaders but also by dictators @AmitShah & @narendramodi. They are nothing but the traitors of this vibrant country.

— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) July 8, 2019

Earlier this morning, Independent MLA H Nagesh also withdrew support from the alliance. With the spate of resignations, the alliance is pushed to the brink. With Nagesh’s resignation, the coalition has been virtually reduced to a minority.

Meanwhile, Home Minister Rajnath Singh denied BJP’s role in the crisis in the Lok Sabha. Attacking Rahul Gandhi for “initiating” the resignation spree, Singh said, “BJP is not responsible for the crisis in Karnataka. We didn’t ask anyone to resign. We’re committed to maintaining the dignity of parliamentary democracy. The trend of submitting resignations was started by Rahul Gandhi in Congress, it wasn’t started by us. He himself asked people to submit resignations, even senior leaders are submitting their resignations.”