Karnataka political crisis: Ex-CM Siddaramaiah blames BJP for 'destruction of democratic setup', says 21 Congress minster resigned 'voluntarily'

Senior Congress leaders, including Siddaramaiah, on Monday addressed the media after meeting with Karnataka deputy chief minister G Parameshwara at his residence. The party leaders claimed that 21 Karnataka Congress ministers have resigned voluntarily. The Congress announced that all its MLAs have offered voluntarily resignation to “unite the party” and defeat the “anti-democratic” BJP. The former chief minister and Congress leader said that even though the coalition government in Karnataka had a “democratic mandate”, the BJP used external agencies to influence its MLAs to resign from the Assembly and quit the government. He also alleged that Amit Shah and Narendra Modi interfered with the state leadership.

Karnataka Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah corrects himself; says, "21 Karnataka Congress ministers have resigned voluntarily" https://t.co/vXrXlaWU51

— ANI (@ANI) July 8, 2019

He said that this was the conspiracy of the BJP as Central agencies are being misused by the Central government to stall the functioning of the Congress-JD(S) alliance. Karnataka Congress in-charge KC Venugopal has expressed that he remains hopeful that the members who reigned will come back to the party. Congress leader and Karnataka minister Zameer Ahmed Khan also said that by Monday evening “at least six to seven” of the 10 MLAs who are “in the BJP camp” are going to come back. [caption id=“attachment_5090621” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Congress leader Siddaramaiah. Getty Images[/caption] The  political crisis in Karnataka , set into motion by the resignations of at least 13 MLAs on Saturday, continued for the third day on Sunday as coalition partners Congress and JD(S) scrambled to pacify the dissenters and bring stability to the government. Senior leaders like Congress’ DK Shivakumar and JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda  held meetings on Sunday to attempt to arrive at a resolution amid accusations of horse-trading against the BJP. Gowda was quoted by India Today questioning the “mass resignations”. “Was there external pressure for mass resignations?” he reportedly asked. Siddaramaiah also claimed on Sunday that the BJP was “behind” the defections, but reiterated that the government was stable. “This clearly shows that BJP is behind all these defections. It is ‘ Operation Kamala’… Everything is fine. Don’t worry. The government will survive, there is no threat to the government,” he said, adding, “I am in touch with five to six MLAs. I can’t reveal all the details. Everybody is loyal to the party. It is not a question of a person being loyal to me. Everybody is expected to be loyal to the party.” Follow LIVE UPDATES on Karnataka political crisis