BELAGAVI: The resignations of MLAs Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi has failed to ruffle Home Minister MB Patil. “To bring the coalition government down, at least 15 MLAs will have to quit, which is highly impossible,” he said here on Monday. Patil said efforts of the BJP to resort to another round of ‘Operation Lotus’ to destabilise the state government will not materialise.

Soon after Anand Singh admitted to the media that the allotment of thousands of acres of land to Jindal Steel on lease-cum-sale basis was one of the reasons for his resignation, Patil said the disgruntled MLA neither met him to lodge a complaint nor write to him on the issue. However, Patil said Chairman of Coalition Coordination Committee Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara will pacify all the disgruntled party legislators. He said the BJP has been trying such tactics to destabilise the government for a long time, but it never worked. And the resignation of two MLAs on Monday “was also part of the same drama.” 

‘Anand’s resignation not linked to Cong rebel group’
Minister Satish Jarkiholi said that Anand Singh may have resigned over the Jindal issue and nothing else. According to him, Anand Singh’s resignation is not linked to the team of disgruntled MLAs of the Congress, headed by MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi.  He also made a phone call to Athani MLA Mahesh Kumathalli in front of media persons asking him whether he too was submitting his resignation. 

In response, Kumathalli, a close associate of Ramesh Jarkiholi said he will never resign. On the resignation of Ramesh Jarkiholi, Satish solely held the former’s brother-in-law Ambirao Patil responsible for it. Satish expressed confidence that the coalition government will remain stable irrespective of whether the MLAs resigned or not.