B’lore: 8 Karnataka Ministers quit; crisis deepens in ruling BJP

PTI

Bangalore, 29 June 2012: The festering crisis in the BJP Government in Karnataka today reached a flash point with eight Ministers loyal to party state strongman B S Yeddyurappa submitting their resignations to Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who they want to be removed.

 

Precipitating the crisis, the Ministers met Gowda and handed over their resignation letters upping the ante in their oust Gowda campaign, seeking to put pressure on the central leadership which has so far refused to buckle to their demand.

 

Emerging from Gowda’s official residence, PWD Minister C M Udasi told reporters that eight Ministers personally submitted their resignations and that of Shobha Karndalaje, who is away from the city, was handed over to the Chief Minister, who insisted that she should do so herself.

 

Besides Udasi, others who resigned are Jagadish Shettar, V Sommanna, Basavaraj Bommai, Murugesh Nirani, Revu Naik Belamagi, M P Renukacharya and Umesh Katti.  Another Minister Raju Gowda would quit tomorrow, Udasi said.

 

"There was a trust deficit between the Ministers and the Chief Minister in the last 3-4 months. We had been pressuring the Chief Minister to convene the BJP legislature party meeting. That also did not happen," he said.

 

He said many issues raised by the MLAs were not addressed by the Chief Minister."So we have decided to resign. We also brought the issues to the notice of central leadership."

 

"We were forced to precipitate the issue... There was no real working arrangement between the Chief Minister and Ministers. There were a lot of complaints by MLAs also," Bommai said.

 

He quoted the Chief Minister as having told them that he would bring the resignation issue to the notice of the party central leadership.