High political drama prevailed in the State Secretariat on March 27 in Karnataka as five Congress legislators, including three MLAs and two MLCs from Kolar district, threatened to tender their resignations to the membership of the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council, respectively, opposing the candidature of Food and Civil Supplies Minister K.H. Muniyappa’s son-in-law Chikka Peddanna in the Kolar (SC) Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress has not yet announced its candidate from Kolar.
Five legislators, including Minister for Higher Education M.C. Sudhakar, reached the offices of the Speaker and the Council Chairman in the Vidhana Soudha on Wednesday noon to tender their resignations.
Meanwhile, all five legislators put their resignations on hold following assurance from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar that they would come to Benglauru to discuss and resolve the issue.
Legislators stopped from resigning
The legislators threatened to tender resignations hours before the central election committee meeting of the Congress today in New Delhi.
Assembly Speaker U.T. Khader was in Mangaluru when the MLAs reached the State Secretariat. They said they collected the forms from the Assembly Secretary’s office to fill and submit resignations.
Two MLCs — Anil Kumar and Nazir Ahmed — met Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti and showed to cameras their resignation letter. Immediately, Minister Byrathi Suresh rushed to the Chairman’s chamber and prevented MLCs from submitting their resignations.
Mr. Horatti said MLCs have not given resignations. “If they resign, I will accept it. I cannot put pressure on them to resign.”
Mr. Suresh said he was directed by AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge to set right differences and the party candidate was not announced. Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar too assured of fielding a consensus candidate in the constituency. Both the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister were not in Bengaluru when the legislators threatened to resign.
“Giving my resignation is my fundamental right. But Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar told me we will discuss the issue in the evening,” Mr. Ahmed said.
Following assurances from Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar, both MLCs put their resignations on hold.
Two factions vying for ticket
Factions led by Minister K.H. Muniyappa and former Speaker and former Minister K.R. Ramesh Kumar have been lobbying hard to get ticket to the candidate belonging to their factions.
Mr. Muniyappa has been vying for the ticket for his son-in-law, who belonged to the left sect of the Scheduled Caste, while another faction seeking ticket for the candidate belonged to the right sect of the SC.
Dalit leader M.C. Muniyappa and former Rajya Sabha member L.H. Hanumanthaiah, are other contenders for the ticket.
