Many of the rebel MLAs allege they have been sidelined by their party

Many of the rebel MLAs allege they have been sidelined by their party

Many of the rebel MLAs allege they have been sidelined by their party

The H.D. Kumaraswamy government is facing what could be its biggest crisis yet as eight MLAs, from both the JD(S) and Congress, reached the office of the Karnataka Assembly speaker and submitted their resignations.

Earlier this week, two Congress MLAs—Anand Singh (Vijayanagar constituency) and Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak)—had announced they had resigned. Jarkiholi was one of the Congress MLAs who went to the speaker's office on Saturday after having earlier faxed his resignation.

Three JD(S) MLAs submitted their resignations on Saturday: Narayan Gowda (K.R. Pet), Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout) and H. Vishwanath (Hunsur). Five Congress MLAs submitted their resignations. They are Pratapgouda Patil (Maski), B.C. Patil (Hirekerur), Mahesh Kumatalli (Athani), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur) and Jarkiholi.

Speaker Ramesh Kumar was not in office when the eight MLAs arrived. The speaker could, in theory, delay accepting the resignations till Kumaraswamy returns from his visit to the US.

With a total of nine MLAs submitting resignations this week, the Kumaraswamy government is expected to be under renewed strain. The combined strength of the Congress-JD(S) camp in the 224 member Assembly is 119. The Kumaraswamy government had recently made two independent MLAs ministers.

If the resignations of the nine MLAs are accepted, the BJP, which has 105 members, would need only six more Congress-JD(S) MLAs to resign in order for the Kumaraswamy government to fall. In such a situation, the effective strength of the Assembly would fall to 209 seats and the BJP could stake claim to form a government on its own.

The viability of the Kumaraswamy government has been in doubt since the result of the Lok Sabha polls in May, when the BJP swept the state, winning 26 of the 28 seats.

(With inputs from Prathima Nandakumar)

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