Late on Saturday (July 13) night, Karnataka rebel MLA MTB Nagaraj announced that he would withdraw his resignation and remain in the Congress, albeit with a condition that was expressed later
Bengaluru: A day after rebel Hoskote Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj held talks with other senior Congress leaders, which supposedly yielded positive results for the party leading him to announce his rethinking on the resignation, the Karnataka MLA was seen boarding a private flight to Mumbai.
Meanwhile, it is also said that state BJP president BS Yeddyurappa's PA and senior party leader R Ashok reportedly escorted him to HAL, Bengaluru, in an obvious attempt to convince Nagaraj to stick to the earlier plan of resigning and thereby toppling the ruling government.
According to reports, another Congress MLA Munirathna Naidu would also go to Mumbai today (July 14) and convince Somashekar Reddy and Byrathi Basvaraj to take back their resignations. The Congress is also in talks with senior leader/rebel Ramalinga Reddy luring him with the promise of a meaty post in the party.
While MTB Nagaraj met former chief minister Siddaramaiah, water resources minister DK Shivakumar and deputy chief minister Parameshwara in Bengaluru and announced to take back his resignation by Monday, the rebel leader also shocked the Congress by claiming that he would withdraw his decision "only if" the party convinces rebel MLA Sudhakar Rao to remain in the party.
It is speculated that the other rebel MLAs are taking measures to keep Sudhakar incommunicado. By keeping him incommunicable, they will only be helping their cause of toppling the Kumaraswamy government.
Earlier, Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy had on Friday (July 12), announced in the state Assembly that he had voluntarily decided to seek a trust vote to end the "confusion" caused by resignations of rebel MLAs and requested the Speaker to fix a time for the same. Reacting to that, Yeddyurappa claimed that Kumaraswamy has to seek trust vote in the Assembly on Monday (July 15).
The Speaker would take the pending decision and perhaps seal the fate of the Karnataka coalition government after the Assembly session resumes on Monday (July 15). However, the Supreme Court has ordered the Speaker to keep the decision of resignation and disqualification of MLAs on hold until Tuesday.
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