Bengaluru: Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Tuesday said that he would go by the rules while taking a call on the resignation of MLAs.
"I have certain rules. I will go by that. Then the decision will be taken. I have to be responsible. Certain things in law are implied. Office of the Speaker should behave responsibly. No time frame is mentioned there," he said when reporters asked him if the resignation of MLAs has been accepted.
Kumar further said: "The clause says if the Speaker is convinced that the resignations are voluntary and genuine he can accept. Otherwise, I don't know. I am not a well-read man. I have to see." Earlier, the Speaker said that no MLA has sought any appointment with him and if someone wants to meet him, he is available in the office.
"Till now, no MLA has sought an appointment with me. If anyone wants to meet me, I will be available in my office," he told reporters. "I am no way related to the current political developments in the state. I am acting as per the Constitution," he added.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Congress unit president Dinesh Gundu Rao: "I am confident that the government will survive and the government will stay. That I am confident about." Congress leader DK Shivakumar said that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is telling that they were are not interested and did not know about the political situation in Karnataka.
"However, BS Yeddyurappa is also saying the same thing, but he is sending his PA to pick up all our ministers," he told media persons. The 13-month old Congress-JDS government in the state has landed in a major crisis after 11 Congress MLAs on July 6 claimed to have put in their papers to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has also claimed that they will overcome the current bout of crisis as well. All the ministers from the two parties have resigned as well to give a free hand to Kumaraswamy to restructure his Council of Ministers and accommodate the dissident MLAs.
Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of conspiring to topple Congress-JDS coalition government in Karnataka.
"The BJP doesn't want the Congress to be in power anywhere, be it in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan or Karnataka. They are conspiring to topple the government in Karnataka. This unholy attempt to topple the government in Karnataka and the cheap ways employed in doing so are harming democracy," Chowdhury told ANI.
"They are doing everything at their disposal to see the government falls. When you see the sequence of events, it is clear that the BJP is the one trying to bring down Karnataka government," Chowdhury had added.
