Two Independent MLAs withdraw support from Karnataka govt

In a setback for the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka, two Independent lawmakers, H Nagesh and R Shankar, have withdrawn their support from the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, according to news agency ANI.

In a setback for the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka, two Independent lawmakers, H Nagesh and R Shankar, have withdrawn their support from the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government, according to news agency ANI.

Speaking with the news agency, Independent MLA, R Shankar was quoted as saying, “Today is Makar Sankranti, on this day we want a change in the govt. The govt should be efficient, so I am withdrawing my support (to the Karnataka govt) today.”

Citing ‘no understanding between coalition partners’ as the reason for his pullout, H Nagesh told ANI: “My support to coalition government was to provide a good and stable government which utterly failed. There’s no understanding among coalition partners. So, I decided to go with BJP to install stable govt & see that govt performs better than the coalition.”

The Congress-JD(S) combine in Karnataka currently has 117 MLAs (Congress 80 and the JDS 37) in the 224-member Assembly while the BJP has 104 and there are three others. The halfway mark is 113.

While blaming the BJP for horse trading, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara has said that their government is stable. “We have been saying that BJP is luring our MLAs through money and power but their attempts to destabilise the govt will fail. Our govt is stable,” he Parameshwara was quoted as saying by ANI.

The fresh horse trading saga in the state erupted after Karnataka Water Resource minister DK Shivakumar on Sunday had said the BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ to topple the state’s coalition government was on and alleged that three Congress MLAs were camping at a hotel in Mumbai in the “company of some BJP leaders”.

Both the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition and the BJP have traded charges against each other of poaching their MLAs even as Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy said his government was not under threat from the saffron party.

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