Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar calls 10 of 13 resigs 'invalid'

The Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka earned a three-day reprieve, courtesy Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, and have till July 12 to put their house back in order. Kumar said he has written to the Governor that none of the rebel MLAs met him, and thus, as per the rules, the resignation of at least eight out of the 13 MLAs were not valid.

He also held the resignation of independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh invalid, claiming that they did not give their letter to him but to the Governor, whose office relayed it to his. "How can the Governor's office be used for forwarding resignations," he asked.

Promising that he would uphold constitutional norms, Kumar said he has given the rebel MLAs time on July 12, when the Assembly session starts, and on July 15 to present themselves before him.

After getting this much-required breather, Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, KC Venugopal, Mallikarjun Kharge, Siddaramaiah, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Eshwar Khandre went into a huddle late on Tuesday evening and decided to urge party trouble-shooter DK Shivakumar, based in Mumbai, to talk to the rebel MLAs on Wednesday.

However, this may become a game of hide-and-seek as the BJP reportedly has moved all 13 MLAs to an undisclosed location. However, Congress leader Zameer Ahmad said four to five persons are keeping a watch on the MLAs' movement and accused the BJP of kidnapping the legislators and seizing their mobile phones and holding them at gunpoint against their wishes. "If set free, the MLAs will return to us," he said.

The BJP legislators at first tried to meet the Speaker, but decided to approach Governor Vajubhai Vala when they could not find him in office. BJP state unit chief, BS Yeddyurappa has also decided to hold a protest at district headquarters on Wednesday morning, demanding the immediate resignation of Chief Minister Kumaraswamy.

According to BJP, the scales have tilted in their favour after the resignations as they now have 107 legislators compared to Congress-JDS's 103 in an Assembly of 211 MLAs. The majority mark required to form the government stands at 106.

"A high-level party delegation is going to meet Governor of Karnataka at 1 PM," said BJP leader Arvind Limbavali. "We want immediate intervention of the Governor. We will decide the further course of action after Tuesday's meeting with Governor and Speaker."