As the government in Karnataka faces an existential crisis with the resignation of 16 legislators of the ruling coalition, the state Cabinet that met Thursday resolved to face the situation "bravely" and "withstand" it unitedly.
Expressing confidence that the government would survive, the cabinet that met under the leadership of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy said it was ready to face a no-confidence motion, if moved by the opposition BJP.
"Political developments were discussed, what was discussed and decided was that the government is in a crisis situation, there is no doubt about it, various reasons for it and steps to solve it were discussed," Rural development minister Krishna Byre Gowda said.
Speaking to reporters after the cabinet meeting here, he claimed that this was the sixth or seventh attempt to destabilise the government.
"It can be called as continuous assault rather, by the BJP, using the central government.
Till today we have withstood all their assaults, this time the situation is more serious than previous attempts we concede that, but after considering all pros and cons, the Chief Minister, the deputy chief minister and the ministers have resolved to face it bravely and withstand it unitedly," he added.
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The resignation of 16 Congress-JD(S) MLAs has pushed the 13-month old coalition government to the brink of collapse.
Stating that cabinet has decided to continue efforts to pacify MLAs who have left, Gowda said it would make all possible efforts to save the government.
"All ministers shared their opinion and to make unified effort to save the government," he said.
Of the 16 MLAs who have resigned, 13 are from the Congress and three from the JD(S).
The coalition's strength in the House is 116 (Congress 78, JD(S) 37 and BSP one), besides the speaker.
With the support of the two independents, who resigned from the ministry on Monday, the opposition BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the halfway mark is 113.
If the resignations of the 16 MLAs are accepted, the ruling coalition's tally will be reduced to 100.
Asked if the government will seek trust vote, he said, "if the need arises, we will do it, but now opposition is in urgency, so if they have so much urgency let them move the no-confidence motion, we will face it.
BJP has demanded resignation of Chief Minister Kumaraswamy, saying his government has "lost majority."
Asked if the cabinet discussed alleged interference by the governor in governments affairs, Gowda said "there are reports and we have ventilated those issues outside the government premises, and we will continue to ventilate those issues, but it was not discussed in the cabinet."