The political crisis in Karnataka showed no signs of resolution with Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar appearing to be in no hurry to take a decision on the resignation of 13 Congress and JD(S) MLAs saying eight of the resignations were not in order.
Talking to the media, he said he has called five MLAs whose resignations were in order for personal hearing before him. Three of them have been called on July 12 and the other two on July 15 because of the intervening holidays on Saturday and Sunday.
Kumar made it clear that he would be transparent and follow the constitution strictly.
He said 13 MLAs had given their resignations to his office when he was not there. They had not sought an appointment and came to his office after he had left for some personal work, last Saturday.
"Of the 13 resignations, eight are not in prescribed format under Rule 202 of the Karnataka Assembly Rules of Procedure. The remaining five, I have called them to satisfy myself (that their resignations were voluntary)," he said.
The three called on July 12 include Anand Singh and Narayana Gowda and on July 15th, it will be Ramalinga Reddy and K Gopaliah. They have been called in the order of their resignations, he said.
"Constitution is my leader. I am a follower of nobody, not a leader of anybody," he said in reply to the questions and refused to reveal the course of action he would follow on the resignations.
He said that he has received a petition form the leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Siddaramiah and state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao, seeking disqualification of the dissident MLAs. The process of inquiry is on in this regard, he said.
"I have given them an opportunity on July 11 to place whatever material they have. I can even give them other opportunity before taking any action," he said.
Kumar said that he got a communication from the Governor Vajubhai Vala telling him that he had received the resignatiion of the dissident MLAs and that action must be taken at the Speaker's end on them.
He also received another communication from the Governor that two more Independent MLAs who are ministers have resigned from the government. "There is no room for me to act on this because it was for the Chief Minister to accept it. I don't know why the Governor sent me the letter," he said.
Kumar said he had also no role to play on an Independent MLA declaring in a letter withdrawing support from the government and extending it to the BJP.
The 13-month old Congress-JDS government slumped into crisis following the resignation of 11 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly on Saturday.
Earlier today, Congress leader Roshan Baig resigned from his membership of state Assembly.
"All JD(S) ministers have resigned, like the 21 Congress ministers who had resigned," tweeted the CMO from their official Twitter account.JDS rebel MLA H Vishwanath had said that 14 MLAs have jointly tendered their resignations to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar and requested him to accept them.
Among the MLAs who resigned are Ramalinga Reddy, Anand Singh, Ramesh Jarkiholi, B C Patil, H Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda, S Hebbar, Mahesh Kumatalli, Gopalayya, and Pratap Gowda Patil. However, the Speaker is yet to accept the resignations.
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