Karnataka Congress ministers ‘resign’ to save government (Lead)

All the Congress ministers in the Karnataka Cabinet on Monday submitted their resignations to party’s legislative leader Siddaramaiah in a bid to save the state’s 13-month-old Congress-JD-S coalition government from collapsing, a senior party official said on Monday.

“All our 22 ministers have submitted their resignation letters to Siddaramaiah to make way for the rebel legislators and save the coalition government,” party’s state in-charge K.C. Venugopal told reports here.

The resignation letters in Kannada were handed over to Siddaramaiah at a meeting of the party leaders and ministers held at Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara’s residence here.

The 34-member ministry has 22 Congress ministers, 10 from Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 10 and one each from Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) and Independent.

Trouble started on Saturday when 10 Congress and three JD-S lawmakers resigned expressing lack of confidence in the government. However, Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar is yet to decide on the resignations.

Intensifying the crisis on Monday, Independent Nagesh also resigned as Small-Scale Industries Minister and withdrew support to the coalition government led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy.

Nagesh submitted his resignation letter to state Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan.

Nagesh got elected in the May 2018 Assembly elections from Mulbagal (SC) constituency in Kolar district.