Karnataka Congress MLA Anand Singh, who was assaulted by colleague, resigns

Karnataka Congress lawmaker Anand Singh, who was allegedly assaulted by a colleague during their stay in a Bengaluru hotel to thwart BJP’s alleged poaching attempt in January, has quit his Assembly membership on Monday. Singh, a Congress MLA from Vijayanagar, has submitted his resignation to Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, according to ANI news agency. However, the Speaker denied having any information regarding Singh’s resignation.

“Nobody has contacted or met me. I have got nothing to do with political developments and I will accept resignations even if 20 members resign. I'm not aware of any such resignation. I haven't met any leader, not even Anand Singh,” Kumar was quoted as saying by the agency.

As per the reports, Singh was an aspirant of a cabinet birth but his was not given the job even after two Cabinet reshuffles. The development has come at a time when Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is out of the country till July 8. The disgruntled Congress leader's resingation has once again reignited the fear of dissent in in the Grand Old Party's state unit.

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He hit the headlines in January this year after a brawl with party colleague at a resort near Bengaluru left him hospitalised. The incident had taken place during a meeting of party MLAs at the resort, where the Congress had confiscated 76 of its lawmakers to "protect" them from the BJP's alleged poaching bid.

Conflicting reports suggested that SIngh had indulged in a heated arguement with fellow MLA JR Ganesh during the meeting. Ganesh then reportedly hit Singh with a flower pot. While the Congress party initially denied any such incident taking place, it later suspended Ganesh for assaulting Sigh.

However, Singh was not happy with the Congress party's handling of the incident and ever since their were murmurs about him quitting the party.