The Congress party in Karnataka suffered yet another jolt on Wednesday with one of its Rajya Sabha members from the state resigning from the House and also giving up his primary membership of the party.
Former IPS officer and educationist K.C. Ramamurthy was elected to Rajya Sabha on June 11, 2016. He submitted his resignation to Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.
Speaking to reporters, the former cop said it was a long pending decision. "I had conveyed my decision to quit to the Congress leaders long back. But no one took it seriously. I feel the party has failed to utilise my experience," said Ramamurthy, adding that he was yet to take a call on joining the BJP.
“I was not pulled across the aisle by the BJP. I resigned of my own volition and wanted to be part of the new India growth story. I have sent my resignation from the primary membership to Smt Sonia Gandhi," added Ramamurthy.
Interestingly, the ruling Congress with 123 members in the Assembly had elected its first and second nominees—Jairam Ramesh and Oscar Fernandes—in 2016 Rajya Sabha polls. It was falling short of 12 votes to elect its third candidate. However, it pitched Ramamurthy as its third nominee against JD(S) candidate B.M. Farooq, despite not having the adequate numbers to wrest the seat. Ramamurthy managed to garner 52 votes after eight JD(S) rebel MLAs led by Zameer Ahmed Khan (now in the Congress) cross-voted defying the party whip and four independent MLAs, too, supported him.
The JD(S) suspended its rebel MLAs—Zameer Ahmed Khan, Chaluvaraya Swamy, Iqbal Ansari, Balakrishna, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda, Gopalaiah, Bheema Nayak and Akhanda Srinivas Murthy—who all later joined the Congress party.
