Nagaraj promises party to rethink on quitting, after reaching Mumbai says no question of U-turn on resignation
The Congress efforts to woo its rebel MLAs back in its fold received a jolt on Sunday as one of the lawmakers arrived in Mumbai after assuring the Congress crisis managers of a possible rethink on his decision to quit.
Rebel Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj flew to Mumbai on Sunday, where he made it clear that there was no question of withdrawing his resignation.
Leaders of the Congress-JD(S) coalition held talks with Nagaraj on Saturday and were confident that he would take back his resignation and help them salvage the 13-month-old HD Kumaraswamy-led Government that is on the brink of collapse.
Before emplaning a chartered flight for Mumbai, the Hoskote MLA told reporters that he intended to take a final call on taking back his resignation after talks with Chikkaballapura MLA K Sudhakar. Nagaraj and Sudhakar had submitted their resignations to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on July 10.
Later in the day, speaking to reporters in Mumbai, Nagaraj said there was no question of withdrawing his resignation and that he was “firm” on the decision.
Stating that all MLAs who have resigned are together, he denied that senior BJP leader R Ashoka had flown with him on the special flight or that the saffron party’s influence was behind their resignations.
Earlier in the day, Congress MLA and former Minister HK Patil had said, “Nagaraj must have learnt that Sudhakar is in Mumbai and I feel he has gone there to bring him and other legislators back.”
Reacting to media reports that Nagraj was in Mumbai to convince the MLAs to withdraw their resignations, rebel Congress MLA ST Somashekar said such claims are baseless as he has joined them now.
Stressing that the 12 rebel MLAs now in Mumbai are united, he said Sudhakar was currently in Delhi and would soon join them. Reacting to Congress Minister Shivakumar’s statement that BJP was behind his travel to Mumbai, Nagraj said his statements were far from the truth.
Blaming the BJP, Shivakumar, considered as Congress’ troubleshooter had said, “They BJP has been fooling around that it has no relation with the current situation.
They have been saying that it is the internal matter of Congress and the JD(S) and they have no knowledge about it.”