Karnataka Crisis: Rebel Congress MLA Nagaraj meets Siddaramaiah

Political crisis continue in Karnataka, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday said he would seek a trust vote and asked Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to fix the time for it. The JDS leader said he was ready for everything and that he was not here to cling to power. Congress leader Siddaramaiah had said that he was confident that the Congress-JDS coalition government in the southern state will win the trust vote, sought by Kumaraswamy. A total of 16 MLAs including 13 from the Congress, have resigned even as two independents, who were made Ministers recently, have withdrawn support to the 13-month old Congress-JD(S) coalition government. On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered status quo on resignations by the rebel MLAs. The matter will be heard on Tuesday next.

Karnataka Crisis: Here are all the LIVE updates

4 pm: Five more Karnataka Congress rebel legislators are set to petition the Supreme Court asking it to direct Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignations, sources said on Saturday. The five rebels are Anand Singh, Munirathna, Roshan Baig, MTB Nagaraj and K Sudhakar.

3 pm: BS Yeddyurappa, BJP state president, says, we have no objection to No Confidence Motion. We will wait until Monday. We are ready to face the No Confidence Motion.

2 pm: Rebel Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj met Congress legislative party leader Siddaramaiah, at the latter's residence. Congress MLA Zameer Khan also present.

1 pm: Rebel Cong MLA MTB Nagaraj arrives to meet Siddaramaiah at latter's residence. MTB Nagaraj had earlier met Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and DK Shivakumar.

12 pm: As the political imbroglio continued in Karnataka, Senior Congress leaders Saturday began backchannel negotiations to persuade the disgruntled MLAs, who have resigned from the Assembly, dealing a blow to the coalition government. A day after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy made a surprise announcement in the Assembly that he would seek a trust vote, efforts were intensified to reach out to the dissident legislators. Congress’s troubleshooter and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar reached the residence of Housing Minister M T B Nagaraj at about 5 AM and camped there for almost four-and-a-half hours, trying to pacify him. According to reports, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara too reached Nagaraj’s house to convince him to withdraw the resignation.

Nagaraj had resigned from the MLA post on Wednesday.

A similar attempt was on to persuade MLAs Ramalinga Reddy, Munirathna and R Roshan Baig.

Sources in JD(S) said Kumaraswamy is in direct talks with at least four Congress legislators, who have resigned, and was hopeful that they would withdraw their resignation.

11.10 am:

Rebel Congress-JDS Karnataka MLAs leaving for Shirdi from Mumbai airport pic.twitter.com/3Bz3vQHhrN

— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2019

11 am: Rebel Congress-JDS Karnataka MLAs leaving for Shirdi from Mumbai airport.

9.20 am: Congress moved its MLAs to Taj Yeshwantpur in Bengaluru. 

9 am: Karnataka Minister and Congress leader DK Shivakumar visited the residence of MTB Nagaraj, State Minister who recently resigned from his post, to convince Nagaraj to reconsider his decision.