Yeddyurappa will be CM if BJP forms govt, says Gowda

Karnataka: In fresh trouble for the wobbly Karnataka coalition government, eight Congress and three JD(S) MLAs submitted their resignation at the Assembly Speaker's office on Saturday. With this, the number of the Congress and the JD(S) members have reduced to 69 and 34, respectively.

Speaker Ramesh Kumar, who was away for work, later told ANI, "I was supposed to pick up my daughter, that is why I went home. I have told my office to accept the resignations and acknowledge the same. Tomorrow is a holiday, so I will see them on Monday."

With the resignations, the Congress-JDS coalition tally will reduce to 103 seats but more significantly the overall strength of the House will now fall to 211. This, in turn, means that the effective simple majority mark will be 106 seats — one less than what the BJP already has. Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and state minister D K Shivakumar have called for an emergency meeting of Congress MLAs and corporators later today. "Nobody will resign, I had come to meet them," Shivakumar was quoted as saying by ANI.

(Inputs from The Indian Express)