While eight ministers-Jagadish Shettar, C M Udasi, Murugesh R Nirani, Basavaraj Bommai, Umesh V Katti, M P Renukacharya, V Somanna and Revunaik Belamagi-handed their resignation letters to Gowda, Shobha Karandlaje and Narasimha Naik (Raju Gouda) were not present.
Within no time, party leaders in Delhi directed the CM not to accept the resignations.
TOI in its June 26 edition had reported that ministers loyal to BSY would resign if the BJP leaders didn't replace Gowda.
After threats on four occasions to resign if Gowda wasn't replaced, the dissident camp gave a handwritten three-line statement (demanding the CM to convene a legislature party meeting) to Gowda at Anugraha, his official residence. They were in such a hurry to be done with it that the eight ministers waiting in Cauvery, official residence of Shettar, which adjoins Anugraha, didn't even give Gowda time to freshen up after returning from Kodagu district. Sending back their official cars, the ministers used private vehicles to reach the CM's residence.
"Though 10 of us have resigned, the CM didn't get the resignations of Shobha and Naik as they were not present. Soon they will meet him and give him the copies. We couldn't tolerate the humiliation anymore as we have been urging the CM to convene legislature party meeting. There is no question of taking back the resignation," dissident leaders Udasi and Bommai said. They hoped they'd get some relief from BJP leaders and maintained it was not blackmail.
The rebel ministers and some legislators met at Shettar's residence on Friday morning and decided to resign. They later met BSY, who has been sulking after being forced to quit last year in the wake of the Lokayukta report on illegal mining indicting him and asked by the party to come clean in the corruption cases. Their decision was endorsed by him. By 3pm, they came back to Shettar's residence and waited for over three hours for Gowda to return.
Dharmendra Pradhan, party in-charge of Karnataka affairs, said in Delhi that there was no question of replacing Gowda as he was "doing a good job". Pradhan was scheduled to be in bangalore on Friday to elicit opinion from legislators on change in guard. As Gowda and state BJP president K S Eshwarappa were not officially informed by Pradhan about his arrival, both along with their loyal ministers exerted pressure on the party leadership and stalled his arrival. They had planned to lead a delegation to Delhi amid speculation of leadership change, but were asked by the leaders to cancel their proposed visit to the capital.
The rebels' move comes a day after the BJP leadership sought to buy more time to resolve the Karnataka crisis. Some ministers loyal to the CM had threatened to resign if Gowda was replaced.
Edited By Cen Fox Post Team
