Congress appeals against MLA Anand Singh’s resignation

BENGALURU:  Three days after Vijayanagara MLA Anand Singh submitted his resignation to legislative assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar, the Congress has appealed against accepting his resignation. Working President Eshwar Khandre approached the Speaker on Thursday to request that the resignation not be accepted. While Speaker Ramesh Kumar maintained that Deputy Chief Minister Parameshwara, who is also the law and parliamentary affairs minister along, with Eshwar Khandre had visited him to apprise him of the commencement of Monsoon session, sources from the Congress suggest that the party has requested the Speaker not to accept Singh’s resignation until he submits an explanation to the party. 

“He became an MLA on a Congress ticket which means he is part of the party. He has neither informed the party of his resignation nor has he resigned from the party’s membership. We have asked the Speaker that these two issues should be considered, and his resignation should not be accepted,” said a senior leader of the party. The party had made a similar request to the Speaker when former Congress MLA and now BJP MP from Gulbarga Dr Umesh Jadhav had submitted his resignation. 

On Thursday, Ramesh Kumar reiterated that he had not received any letter of resignation from Gokak MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi. “What is the point of doing anything behind the scenes in a democracy? Only jobless and irresponsible people indulge in such behaviour. If it is done secretly, then it is business and not social service,” an uncharacteristic Ramesh Kumar said on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, Anand Singh, who spoke to the media, said that Congress leaders had been trying to contact him continuously but he was keen on not responding. “The only person I will talk to is now in the US,” Singh said implying that he would only talk to Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The Congress is said to have asked the Speaker to withhold accepting Anand Singh’s resignation in the hopes that Kumaraswamy will be able to convince him to withdraw his resignation.