Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala and colleague Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Yediyurappa government has no moral right to continue in office any more.
During the Karnataka elections held in May this year, the average amount spent on the campaign by each candidate was Rs 7.43 lakh. Interestingly, this is just 46 per cent of the allotted budget of Rs 16 lakh per candidate.
Two-time chief minister and five-time MLA Janata Dal-Secular leader H D Kumaraswamy has once again demonstrated his political acumen by bagging a seat in the union council of ministers, despite his party joining the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance just last year.
Sudhakar and Somashekar were earlier with the Congress. They were among the 17 Congress-Janata Dal Secular legislators who quit and defected to BJP that led to the collapse of the coalition government and paved the way for BJP to come to power.
Speaking after the core committee meeting, Yediyurappa said the disqualified MLAs have expressed intention to join the party on Thursday and they would be given the membership.
Asserting that the JD-S does not practice opportunistic politics, Gowda while defending the decision to ally with the BJP said, "This party has to be saved, which has been his pain and struggle for decades, and there is no selfishness in this....I took the decision."
A meeting of the Congress legislature party (CLP) on Thursday formally elected Siddaramaiah as its leader and the next chief minister of Karnataka.
Both the eight-time MLA Shivakumar and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah have made no secret of their ambition to become CM and had been involved in a game of political one upmanship in the past.
HD Kumaraswamy, former chief minister, will contest from Channapatna where he had won the election defeating local heavyweight CP Yogeshwar in 2018.
Their resignations came shortly after 21 ministers of coalition partner Congress quit the cabinet.
BSR Party chief Sriramulu has claimed that he has the support of over 20 BJP MLAs. He would need just ten MLAs from the BJP to cross vote in order to defeat Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda reports Vicky Nanjappa.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi concluded the hearings of the rebel MLAs, the Speaker and Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.
The BJP has less than five months to straighten things out to taken on the Lingayat strongman in the May 2013 elections, says Aditi Phadnis
Amid the suspense over the fate of the B S Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka following the revolt by a section of the Bharatiya Janata Party Members of Legislative Assembly, both the ruling party and opposition Janata Dal - Secular on Saturday continued their political machinations to maintain control over the rebels, who are currently holed up in a Goa hotel. Tourism Minister and mining magnate G Janardhana Reddy.
Janata Dal-Secular leader and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy expressed confidence on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party rebels will align with him and vote against the state governmment during the crucial floor test on October 11.
Gandhi drove to Kharge's residence and held a closed-door meeting with the Congress chief.
BJP let Yeddyurappa get away with indiscretions as it did not want to rock the boat in Karnataka, says Aditi Phadnis
in payment of compensation to land owners by Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board.
They are also likely to demand a second round of cabinet expansion soon.
'There cannot be an alliance with Congress that does not honour the coalition dharma'
Banners have come up in front of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar's residences in Bengaluru, erected by supporters, congratulating them for Congress win and projecting them as "next CM".
He also announced appointment of another senior leader D Manjunath as chairman of the party's Parliamentary Board and Meerajuddin Patel as chairman of the Political Affairs Committee.
The MLAs who were seen at the Speaker's office include, Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Pratap Gowda Patil (Maski), Shivram Hebbar (Yellapur), Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), B C Patil (Hirekerur), Byratibasavaraj (K R Puram), S T Soma Shekar (Yashwanthpur) and Ramalinga reddy (BTM Layout) of the Congress. The JD-S MLAs are A H Vishwanath (Hunsur), who recently resigned as party's state chief, Narayana Gowda (K R Pet), and Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout).
The Karnataka legislative assembly on Wednesday witnessed chaotic and unruly scenes as angry Bharatiya Jansata Party legislators tore copies of bills and the agenda, and threw them at the deputy speaker, who was presiding, following which Speaker U T Khader suspended 10 of them for the remainder of the session.
The two-day conclave of the Karnataka Janata Dal-Secular that concluded on Tuesday decided against exploring possibilities of forming another government and galvanised the party for mid-term polls.The top leadership has been trying since Monday to placate its agitated MLAs, who have been insisting that efforts be made towards installing a government either with its estranged partner BJP or with the Congress.
Several legislators in states on Monday said they have cross-voted in favour of National Democratic Alliance nominee Droupadi Murmu by not following their respective party lines in the presidential election.
The first Karnataka legislative assembly session, after the formation of the new government will be held on starting Monday next week in Bengaluru.
"Speaker is yet to fix another date for them to appear before him," the sources added.
Fresh after winning the second trust vote on Thursday, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Friday called for a cabinet meeting on October 18, where is expected to re-shuffle his state cabinet.
It was a hectic day in the political circles of Bangalore on Sunday with a crucial JD-S legislature party meeting being followed by a meeting between Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa and JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy. The JDLP meeting decided to wait a few more hours to see whether the BJP will agree to its conditions. The BJP has already expressed its unwillingness to sign on the dotted line dictated by the JD-S.
The current public mood is that it will be a hung assembly. No one, not even in the BJP, is talking about even a simple majority for the party.
It is speculated that Scindia, known to be very close to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, met the legislators in a bid to feel their pulses in the wake of developments in Karnataka and Goa.
Over the last few days, K R Ramesh Kumar has made all efforts to ensure the Congress-Janata Dal-Secular coalition stays in power, resulting in him being under tremendous pressure.
Kumaraswamy's remarks assumed significance in the backdrop of former home minister Prakash rushing to Delhi on Friday to continue talks with Congress leaders in a bid to concretise efforts for government formation proposal.
While the ruling BJP, riding on the Modi juggernaut, wants to break the 38-year jinx and retain its southern citadel, the Congress is seeking to wrest power to give the party much-needed elbow room and momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
The Janata Dal-Secular leader also said that he may move the confidence of motion on May 24.
Shankar went to Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti's office and tendered his hand-written resignation.
The speaker said he would take a decision on the remaining 14 cases in a "couple of days."
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The Kollegal MLA said he will not attend the floor test on the direction of party supremo Mayawati.
