Ready to form government in Karnataka: BJP

By Madhu M Naik/Ashwin Goutham
Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], July 6 (ANI): The BJP on Saturday said it is ready to form the government in the state following fresh trouble in the ruling Congress-JD(S) government with the resignations of 11 MLAs from the two parties.
Party leader and Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister DV Sadananda Gowda told reporters here that the MLAs had decided to resign as they thought it was not in the interest of the people of the state and their constituency to be part of the current government.
"If the Governor calls us, certainly we are ready to form the government as we are the single largest party. We have got 105 people with us," he said when asked if the next government will be that of the BJP.
Gowda said the Governor is the supreme authority as per the Constitution.
"These types of activities were going on in Karnataka. Today they thought that it is high time to come out of that party and resign from the legislators' post because they felt that continuing as MLA (is) not good in the larger interest of the constituency and the state. So they have resigned," he said.
Gowda, however, denied that the BJP had any role in the resignations and if it were a part of "Operation Kamal".
"Hundred per cent not. The media has shown the MLAs who went to meet Speaker AR Ramesh Kumar. No BJP leader or MLAs were behind them. They voluntarily went to the Speaker and submitted their resignation. So it shows there is no interference by the BJP at any point as far as resignations are concerned," he said.
Asked about the chief ministerial candidate, he said that BS Yeddyurappa has been declared as the chief ministerial candidate. "He will be the Chief Minister if a new government is formed," added Gowda.
The dissidence-plagued Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka appeared to have fallen into a minority with 11 of the MLAs belonging to the two parties quitting the Assembly as the crisis deepened for the ruling dispensation.
On the day of high drama, eight of the coalition MLAs went to the Raj Bhavan to meet Governor Vajubhai Vala, while three of the Congress MLAs went to the residence of Energy Minister D K Shivakumar, who has mounted efforts to persuade them to withdraw their resignations. (ANI)