Is Karnataka's JDS-Congress govt on its way out? HD Kumaraswamy to take final call today

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy has gone into huddle with Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, KC Venugopal and others at KK Guest House in Bengaluru in what is seen as the last bid to save the state government. Amid speculations of what exactly both alliance partners will do, News Nation has learnt the inside details of the crucial meeting. With rebels remaining adamant and out of reach, Kumaraswamy is learnt to have offered the Chief Minister’s post to the Congress. It means that the Congress will have to explore ways to bring the rebels back into the flock.

Second option proposed by the Chief Minister is that he steps down from his post. In case, Kumaraswamy goes for option ‘B’, he will do it in the Vidhana Soudha tomorrow when the Assembly commences the session. Sources say that Kumaraswamy will announce his resignation shortly after Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar’s opening address.

Option number three is to watch what the Supreme Court says on the plea filed by the rebels. The 10 rebel MLAs of Congress and JD(S) in their collective please had alleged that the Karnataka Assembly Speaker was not accepting their resignations deliberately. The 10 rebel MLAs who have filed the application in the top court are -- Pratap Gouda Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, B C Patil, S T Somashekhar, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, Mahesh Kumathalli, K Gopalaiah, A H Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda.The plea, which has sought direction for the Speaker to accept the resignation of these MLAs, would be heard by a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.

Thirteen MLAs -- 10 of the Congress and three of the JD(S) -- submitted their resignation to the Speaker's office on July 6 triggering a fresh political crisis in the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state. Another Congress MLA R Roshan Baig resigned on Tuesday.

The ruling coalition's total strength is 116 (Congress-78), JD(S)-37 and BSP-1, besides the Speaker. With the support of the two independents, who on July 8 resigned from the ministry, the BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the half-way mark is 113.