Hectic parleys are underway to pacify a dozen Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) rebel legislators to withdraw their resignations and save the 13-month-old coalition government in Karnataka.
"Senior leaders in both the parties are holding talks to address the concerns of the rebels and ensure they withdraw their resignations. However, they are unable to contact and convince them as about 10 of them flew to Mumbai on Saturday evening," a Congress-JD(S) spokesman told IANS.
At the Congress office, party's state unit in-charge KC Venugopal, discussed the grievances of the rebels with Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara, state working President Eshwar Khandre and senior party leader Mallikarjun Kharge.
"Venugopal spoke to senior rebel legislator Ramalinga Reddy, assured him to address his concerns and advised him to withdraw his resignation. Reddy has also been urged to contact the other rebels and convince them to withdraw their resignations," the official said.
Ten Congress and three JD(S) lawmakers submitted their resignations to Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Saturday, expressing lack of confidence in the coalition government’s leadership.
The Congress rebel MLAs are Pratapgouda Patil (Maski), BC Patil (Hirekerur), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Shivram Hebbar (Yellapur) Mahesh Kumatahalli (Athani), Ramalinga Reddy (BTM Layout), ST Somashekar (Yeshvantpur), Munirathna (RR Nagar), Anand Singh (Ballari) and SN Subba Reddy (KGF in Kolar).
The three rebel JD-S MLAs are AH Vishwanath (Hunsur), Narayana Gowda (KR Pete) and Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout). Of the Congress rebels, Somashekar and Munirathna, loyalists of Siddaramaiah, want the latter to be made CM again, sources said. Both were ministers in the previous Congress government.
"In the JD(S), party supremo HD Deve Gowda held talks with the party's newly appointed state President HKKumaraswamy and PWD Minister HD Revanna at his residence to make rebels Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda withdraw their resignations," party spokesman Ramesh Babu told IANS.
The Speaker told reporters on Saturday that he would look into the resignations of the rebel legislators on Tuesday, ahead of the Monsoon session of the state legislature from July 12.
Though Jarkiholi had sent his resignation on July 1, it was not accepted by the Speaker, as it was faxed to his office, which is against the procedure.
Congress legislator Anand Singh from Vijayanagara segment had also resigned on July 1. As he personally handed over his resignation letter to the Speaker, his office acknowledged receiving it.
As the legislators could not meet the Speaker at his office in the state Secretariat, they met Governor Vajubhai Vala in Raj Bhavan and apprised him of the reasons for their resignation.