Shettar free to dissolve House

The BJP central leadership is learnt to have given a free hand to Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar to take a decision on dissolving the Assembly before the ensuing elections.

The advice of the party’s central leadership to Shettar comes at a time, when 13 ruling party MLAs have quit their Assembly membership and the party, and resignations of three more are pending before the Speaker K G Bopaiah.

Two more legislators Raju Gouda, who recently quit as Small Scale Industries minister, and Sagar MLA Belur Gopalkrishna have announced their decision to quit the BJP.

The Shettar government will be reduced to a minority if Gouda and Gopalkrishna quit and, the Speaker accepts all the resignations, including the three kept on hold.

During his recent visit to New Delhi, Shettar is learnt to have brought the recent developments in the party to the notice of party president Rajnath Singh. It is learnt that Singh advised Shettar that the central leadership would not interfere if the State unit favoured dissolution of the Assembly.

Shettar is understood to have told the central leadership that he will take a final call after taking his Cabinet colleagues into confidence. A section of the central leadership is learnt to have favoured dissolution instead of sticking to power at a time when several ministers and MLAs were deserting the party.  Senior leader and former Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda, who met Singh last week, also pitched strongly for the dissolution.

The issue of dissolving the Assembly is likely to be discussed informally at Monday’s cabinet meeting in Bangalore. State party president and Deputy Chief Minister K S Eshwarappa said the party was ready for any eventuality. “We will see how many more will quit the party and then take an appropriate decision”.

He accused the Congress of trying to create trouble for the government. “If we are directed by the Governor to seek a trust vote, we are ready for it. We will expose on the floor of the House, the conspiracy hatched by the Congress,” Eshwarappa said.