K'taka crisis: Congress' emergency meet postponed as most MLAs remain out of town

With 11 MLAs - eight from Congress and three from JD (S)- tendering their resignation on Saturday in Karnataka, the Congress Legislative Party-led by Siddaramaiah called for an emergency meeting to persuade them not to resign. However, following the absence of a sufficient number of party MLAs in the state, the meet has been postponed.

Karnataka: An emergency meeting of Karnataka's Congress Legislative Party, which was scheduled to take place at 10 am on Sunday morning, has been postponed owing to the absence of a sufficient number of party MLAs in the state.

The Congress MLAs asked to attend the meet are reportedly out of town.

The meeting was supposed to be chaired by former Karnataka Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah, who is also the leader of the Congress Legislative Party.

The emergency meet has been called in the backdrop of 11 MLAs - eight from Congress and three from JD (S)- of the ruling coalition government in Karnataka tendering their resignation to the Speaker of the state assembly K. R. Ramesh Kumar.

The Congress leadership has decided to persuade the dissenting MLAs, who flew to Mumbai on Saturday night, to keep the one-year-old Congress- JD(S) alliance together.

The Speaker is likely to respond to the resignations on Tuesday as he is on leave until Tuesday.

Congress has been blaming the BS Yeddyurappa led- Bharatiya Janta Party in Karnataka of poaching the MLAs of the ruling coalition government.

Before the 11 MLAs dissented, the Congress-JD(S) strength stood at 115, giving it a majority in the state assembly. But, with the alliance getting the support of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the lone independent MLA, their total strength rose to 117.

The BJP, on the other hand, has the support of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) which has one MLA. Thus the BJP+ stands at 106 at present.

If the Speaker accepts the resignation of the eight Congress and three JD(S) MLAs, the effective strength of the Karnataka assembly will fall down to 213, excluding the Speaker. The magic number than needed to form the next government will be 107.

This is a very advantageous situation for the BJP+ since it already has 106 MLAs. It would, however, still need the support of one more MLA. The party would try to convince the lone Independent MLA to switch side or join the BJP.