Since October 14 three Opposition MLAs have resigned from their seats. So far no visuals of the MLAs submitting resignation to the Speaker’s office have been made public and the Speaker has maintained that he would not accept any resignations unless they are submitted in person.
But the Congress has come down heavily on the Speaker saying how could the latter have accepted the resignations when they were not submitted in person. KPCC president R V Deshpande claimed that they have been keeping a watch on the Speaker’s chambers for the last three days and that “no Congress MLA has met him”. “If the Speaker has received resignation letter either by post or fax, there is a set of procedure to follow before accepting it,” he said. CLP leader Siddaramaiah alleged: “The Speaker has become a puppet in the hands of the ruling party. He has been acting as a slave of the Chief Minister,” and added that Bopaiah had accepted resignation in clear violation of the rules.
“We do not know when our MLAs resigned. We have no official information,” he maintained.
When pointed out that the Speaker’s office says there is evidence to show that the Speaker himself has received the resignation letters, Siddaramaiah quipped: “Probably he himself must have gone to receive the resignation letters from the MLAs.”
Members of the Youth Congress staged a protest in front of the Speaker’s office. They went to submit a memorandum asking him to not accept the resignations. However, Bopaiah did not meet the agitators.
Meanwhile, the Congress has expelled S V Ramachandra and M Narayanaswamy from the party for a period of six years.