Karnataka Government Crisis: 11 Karnataka Congress-JDS Coalition Lawmakers Quit, Ferried To Mumbai Hotel

The Karnataka legislators who resigned met the governor in the evening.

Highlights

11 lawmakers from the ruling Karnataka coalition government have resigned
If resignations are accepted, coalition comes close to losing majority
The year-old Congress-JDS coalition has struggled with revolt, infighting

Bengaluru: The Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition government in Karnataka appears to be teetering on the edge with 11 lawmakers resigning, while Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is still in the US on a private trip. Eight Congress and three Janata Dal Secular legislators submitted their resignations to the speaker on Saturday afternoon, while he was not in office. The legislators then also met the governor at the Raj Bhavan before being flown out to a five-star hotel in Mumbai on a private jet. If the resignations are accepted, the coalition will be close to collapse.

Here are the top 10 developments in this big story:

"We have given our resignation to the speaker's office. We have brought this to the notice of the governor as well. We urge that our resignations be accepted," H Vishwanath, a lawmaker of the chief minister's JDS said after meeting the governor. Mr Vishwanath resigned as JDS state president just days ago.
"I have come to submit my resignation to speaker," Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy told the media while waiting at speaker Ramesh Kumar's office. "I am not going to blame anyone in the party or the high command. I somewhere feel I was being neglected over some issues," he added.
Karnataka minister DK Shivakumar, the Congress troubleshooter who has spent many months trying to keep the flock together, coaxed three Congress lawmakers, including Ramalinga Reddy, to go with him, after meeting the rebels at the speaker's office but they later went to the Raj Bhavan. Mr Shivakumar also conceded that he tore up resignation letters of the rebelling lawmakers, as alleged by opposition BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa, defending the action as one out of "emotion".
Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and Mr Shivakumar called an emergency meeting of legislators and corporators. Besides the Chief Minister, state Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao is also away, but is rushing back to Bengaluru.
Despite the efforts by the Congress, the rebelling leaders addressed the media together outside the governor's residence, claiming they were among 14 legislators quitting the ruling coalition. As many as 10 of them were then flown out to Mumbai later in the evening on a chartered flight and put up at a five-star hotel.
The Congress, after a meeting of senior leaders in Delhi on Saturday evening, blamed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his BJP for the lawmakers quitting. "Aaya Ram, gaya Ram politics (horse-trading) has a new definition now: Mischievously Orchestrating Defections In India - MODI," Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said.
The Congress and JDS together have 116 in the 224-member state assembly where 113 is the majority mark. The coalition will crash if 14 lawmakers quit. The year-old coalition, wobbly from the start, has struggled with revolt and infighting since it came to power in May last year.
The BJP, which has 105 legislators, says the party has nothing to do with the walkout by the Congress legislators - and says if the government falls, the BJP should be invited to form government.
On Monday, two Congress legislators, Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi had resigned, bringing the ruling coalition of the JDS and the Congress down to 116. The resignation of the two legislators has not been formally accepted though.
The Congress-JDS coalition suffered a disastrous outing in the Lok Sabha election; the two parties managed just one seat in the 28 seat- state. The rest were scooped up by the BJP, led by former Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and one BJP-backed independent. The two parties had joined forces after the assembly elections last year in May to keep the BJP out of power.