Karnataka: Congress' State Chief KC Venugopal Rushes To Bengaluru To Deal With Crisis

As the JD-S-Congress coalition government faced a grave threat with 11 Congress and three Janata Dal-Secular MLAs submitting their resignation, Congress state in-charge KC Venugopal left for Bengaluru in a bid to do damage control.

Rahul Gandhi with senior party leaders Sonia Gandhi and KC Venugopal at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting, in New Delhi | Photo: PTI (File)

NEW DELHI: As the JD-S-Congress coalition government faced a grave threat with 11 Congress and three Janata Dal-Secular MLAs submitting their resignation, Congress state in-charge KC Venugopal left for Bengaluru in a bid to do damage control, IANS reported quoting party sources. According to party sources, Venugopal, who was in Kerala, left for Bengaluru in the afternoon and will meet the Congress MLAs in a bid to save the one year old coalition government in the state. The party sources said that the Venugopal, who is also a party General Secretary, could offer the cabinet rank to few of the angry MLAs. The development in Karnataka comes at a time when the Congress is facing a major lesdership crisis in the wake of Rahul Gandhi stepping down from the party chief's post following the Lok Sabha drubbing.

The crisis, which had been brewing ever since the BJP swept the parliamentary polls in the state, deepened as 13 Congress and JD(S) MLAs reached the Speaker's office to put in their papers and later met Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday. After meeting the Governor, JD(S) MLA A H Vishwanath said, "Fourteen MLAs from Congress and JD(S), including Anand Singh, have submitted resignation from the Assembly to the Speaker...we also brought to matter to the notice of governor." Singh submitted his resignation to the Speaker earlier this week. Vishwanath accused the coalition government led by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy of failing in its duty and denied that the BJP was behind the revolt. "The government failed to coordinate with the MLAs...and take them along. It has also failed to live up to the expectations of the people," he said. On the charge that the BJP was trying to destabilise the government through "Operation Lotus (BJP's poll symbol)", he said it is "a figment of your imagination". "There is no BJP angle to it. We are all seniors. No operation can happen...we are resigning voluntarily against the apathy of the government," he said. Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar, who was not in his office when the legislators went there Saturday, confirmed the resignations and said "whether the government will fall or survive" would be decided "in the Assembly". As a last-ditch bid, Congress's "trouble shooter" and Minister D K Shivakumar met the legislators and tried to convince them. (With inputs from agencies)