21 Karnataka Congress MLAs resign: Siddaramaiah

TIL Desk/National/Karnataka/ Karnataka Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah announces that all 21 Karnataka Congress ministers have resigned voluntarily. This comes even as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh tells the Lok Sabha that the BJP has nothing to do with what is happening in Karnataka. “Our party has never indulged in horse trading,” he said.

This morning, Karnataka Minister and Independent legislator H Nagesh resigned from the state cabinet on Monday and offered support to the BJP, if they form the government. Nagesh’s resignation comes less than a month after he was inducted as a minister, along with R Shankar, another Independent.

The Cong-JD-S coalition suffered a blow when 11 lawmakers from both parties resigned on Saturday. The resignations will be examined by Speaker Ramesh Kumar tomorrow.  The Congress and the JDS together have 118 members in the 224-seat state assembly, along with one BSP and one Independent member.

The defections will bring its numbers down to 105 and the majority mark in the assembly from 113 to 106.  The BJP also has 105 members.  Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy returned early from his US holiday on Sunday and held a meeting with coalition partner Congress which ended just before midnight.