Karnataka crisis: Coalition fights for survival as 30 ministers resign\, govt denies role in turmoil

Karnataka crisis: Coalition fights for survival as 30 ministers resign, govt denies role in turmoil

The political crisis in Karnataka has worsened in the past few days with as many as 30 ministers resigning from their post. In a recent development, Union Minister Rajnath Singh has denied any role in the Karnataka political turmoil and said the campaign of tendering resignation was started by Rahul Gandhi.

Representative News Image
Image Source : PTI

Karnataka political crisis live updates

As differences between senior Congress leaders Siddaramaiah and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy prevail, the party is still making efforts to work out a solution to save its government in the state. The question now is who will lead the coalition in the southern state. Most of the Congress rebels are Siddaramaiah loyalists, but Kumaraswamy has put his foot down against making him the chief minister.

In a recent development, the Congress MLAs who had planned to shift to Pune and Goa are now staying back at an undisclosed location in Mumbai. 

On Monday, a meeting was held between Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmad Patel, Deepender Hooda, Motilal Vora, P Chidambaram, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitendra Singh, Mukul Wasnik and others. The meet was aimed to work out a compromise formula. 

The meeting of the senior leaders lasted for over one hour. While leaving the war room office, Vora said, "We are discussing the issue."

Meanwhile, the Congress party is also in consideration of naming any leader but Siddaramaiah, for chief ministership. The senior party leaders had held a similar meeting on Saturday, soon after over a dozen of Congress and the JD-S MLAs resigned.

After the meeting on Saturday, senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge had flown to Bengaluru to control the crisis. Besides Kharge, party General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal was also rushed to Bengaluru the same day.

Monday's meeting came at a time when all Congress and JD-S Ministers in Karnataka resigned in a bid to save the tottering government even as the BJP asked Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to quit, saying he had lost majority support in the House.

The Congress has accused the BJP of destabilising the Karnataka government, a charge the BJP has denied.

Earlier in the day, the Karnataka political crisis also echoed in the Parliament where the government denied any role in the turmoil even as Congress accused it of hatching a conspiracy.

Taking a dig at outgoing Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, "The campaign of tendering resignation was started by him (Rahul Gandhi) and it had nothing to do with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."

The minister was responding to Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury who accused the BJP of trying to destabilise the Congress-JD-S coalition in Karnataka.

Rajnath Singh also said that his party did not believe in the politics of horse-trading or inducements.

In a further setback to the Congress-JD-S combine, senior Congress leader Roshan Baig said in the evening that he would quit as an MLA and join the BJP. 

Also Read | Karnataka government on brink of collapse as Independent too rebels

Video: Congress-JDS govt shifts 14 of its MLAs from Mumbai to Goa as one threatens to join BJP

Write a comment