BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa has rejected the demand of the Congress for his resignation after a video clip of his alleged remarks over the resignation of Congress and JD-S MLAs surfaced. He also dismissed Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao's demand for resignation of BJP chief and union Home Minister Amit Shah.
"It is foolishness. As an opposition leader, he does not know what he is speaking. Why should Amit Shah resign? They (rebel MLAs) were in Mumbai for two-and-a-half-months, how is he responsible? It shows that he, being in the Opposition, wants to take advantage of it (the situation)," Yediyurappa said. "I have told workers not to speak nonsense in the meeting. They have resigned for their reasons. Let us wait for Supreme Court's decision and in the meantime, let us not speak anything on the MLAs," he added.
In the video clip that surfaced, Yediyurappa purportedly says that the decision of the 17 JD-S and Congress MLAs to resign, which led to the fall of the HD Kumaraswamy-led government in July, was taken by the central leadership of the BJP and that the party workers should honour the "sacrifice" of the rebel MLAs. Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that Yediyurappa has no right to continue in the office. Gundu Rao had alleged that BJP's central leadership was involved in toppling the coalition government of Congress and JD-S and Shah has no moral right to continue as the Home Minister.
Cong to approach top court
The Congress, meanwhile said that it would approach the Supreme Court with the "latest evidence". Congress general secretary organisation KC Venugopal, at a press conference, alleged, "We kept saying that under the leadership of Prime Minister and Home Minister, BJP is misusing all the government agencies to destablise opposition-led governments." The AICC in-charge of Karnataka said, "now, there is a concrete proof and it is very shocking that Yediyuruppa is telling that the Supreme Court may give relief to the defectors and they can contest elections."
"We are expecting the Supreme Court will view this matter very seriously and they will take action accordingly. Anyway the Congress party is approaching the Supreme Court with this latest evidence," Venugopal said, demanding answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over the issue.
