Hoskote Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj announced that he would withdraw his resignation on Sunday (July 13). But within moments, did a volte-face as he said his resignation would depend on the resignation choice of Sudhakar, his close friend and Congress MLA from Chikkaballapur, Karnataka.
Bengaluru: Hours and hours of talks with rebel Hoskote Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj by senior Congress leaders including former chief minister Siddaramaiah and water resources minister DK Shivakumar, deputy chief minister Parameshwara in Bengaluru, Karnataka, yielded positive results. Or so they thought!
Late on Saturday (July 13) night, MTB Nagaraj announced that he would withdraw his resignation and remain in the Congress. From Siddaramaiah, his mentor, to the CM, everyone was jumping in joy as his volte-face would only mean one hurdle less for the JD(S)-Congress to survive.
MTB Nagaraj said, “I have decided to withdraw my resignation. I will do it by Sunday (July 13). Senior leaders from my party spoke to me and addressed all my concerns.”
But within moments, the leader backtracked. Speaking to a local English channel, he dropped a bomb, “I will have a word with Sudhakar, the MLA from Chikkaballapura on Sunday. I tried to meet him today but was unable to meet him. If and only if he withdraws his resignation, I will also follow suit. If he (Sudhakar) sticks to his guns and resigns, I will also resign.”
But much before this retraction, Shivakumar couldn’t hide his glee, “MTB Nagaraj and I have known each other for four decades. We tried to pacify from 1 am to 1 pm. Even Siddaramaiah put his heart and soul into convincing him. It’s good he has accepted our pleas.”
Surely, this development will have made the recuperating coalition slip into coma!
Meanwhile, the news of MTB Nagaraj deciding to withdraw his resignation (without the condition of Sudhakar withdrawing his resignation) reached the disgruntled MLAs in Mumbai. As expected, they are livid with the leader as they thought they would get able support from him (MTB Nagaraj).
Sources say that these disgruntled MLAs are taking measures to keep Sudhakar incommunicado. By keeping him incommunicable, they will only be helping their cause of toppling the Kumaraswamy government.
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