Karnataka crisis: All eyes on Speaker

Bengaluru, July 09: All eyes would be on the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly as he takes a call on the resignations submitted by the 13 MLAs today. The decision by the Speaker, Ramesh Kumar would be crucial to the Congress-JD(S) government in Karnataka.

On Saturday, the Speaker had promised to take up the matter on Tuesday by summoning all the MLAs and speaking to them. While the rebel MLAs would meet with the Speaker, they will not be part of the Congress Legislature Party meeting scheduled to be held at around 9.30 am.

The Congress is likely to petition the Speaker to disqualify the MLAs under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with defection. The Congress claims that it has evidence to prove that the MLAs did not resign voluntarily, but were forced by the BJP to do so.

Meanwhile, ministers from both the JD(S) and Congress have resigned in a bid to facilitate the disgruntled MLAs.

The Twitter handle the Chief Minister's Office said. " all JD(S) ministers have resigned in the same manner as the 21 ministers from the Congress. The Cabinet will be restructured soon, the handle also said.