As the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka teetered on the brink of collapse, all the ministers quit Monday to give a free hand to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to reshuffle his Cabinet, but the BJP seems to be in no hurry to stake a claim to form the government in Karnataka.
According to the Hindustan Times, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not rush to stake a claim to form the government in Karnataka without being sure of its numbers, three leaders of the party said on condition of anonymity. A BJP leader told the leading daily, “The BJP will wait for the resignations to be accepted. Our MLAs will meet again Tuesday in Bangalore [Bengaluru] to take stock of the situation.”
Another BJP leader said they were in no hurry to bring down the government. “The BJP comes into the picture only after the government falls,” the leader told the Hindustan Times. “The BJP will request the governor to ask Kumaraswamy to prove his majority on the floor of the House. We feel the trigger of the rebellion is within the ruling alliance,” a third BJP leader told the leading daily.
The JD-S-Congress government in Karnataka was on the verge of collapse on Monday, with a lone legislator from a regional party and an Independent MLA withdrawing their support to the ruling coalition, which has already been hit by the resignations by over a dozen MLAs of the two parties. There was no immediate word from the rebel camp on the move to reshuffle the Cabinet in a bid to save the wobbly 13-month-old government, as the action shifted to Goa from Mumbai after 13 dissident MLAs -- 10 of the Congress and 3 of the JD(S) -- submitted their resignations to the Assembly Speaker's office on Saturday triggering a fresh political crisis. Of the 13 MLAs, 10 -- seven of them from the Congress -- were holed up in a luxury hotel in Mumbai since Saturday and were joined by H Nagesh, one of the two Independent MLAs and a minister who quit, on Monday. All the legislators headed to Goa by road.
The BJP on Monday said it would stage state-wide protests from Tuesday demanding that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy step down immediately as his government has slipped into a 'minority' following the resignation of 13 MLAs and withdrawal of support by two independent MLAs. While 13 MLAs from ruling coalition Congress and the JD(S) resigned earlier including 12 on Saturday, two independent MLAs H Nagesh (Mulbagal constituency) and R Shankar (Ranebennur) withdrew their support to the government on Monday. "This government has lost the majority and it has no moral right to continue. The chief minister should resign immediately. We will stage demonstrations tomorrow across the state at all the district headquarters," BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa told reporters at Bengaluru.
