Azad, Hariprasad rush to Bengaluru as K'taka crisis deepens

Bengaluru: As the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka plunges into more trouble, the Congress Tuesday rushed senior leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and B K Hariprasad to Bengaluru to solve the differences.

Sources said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi asked the leaders to mitigate the crisis in the southern state and save the government.

Azad was the one who along with Ashok Gehlot stitched together the coalition government in Karnataka last year.

The crisis in Karnataka deepened Tuesday as another Congress MLA quit and the party sought the assembly Speaker’s intervention in disqualifying its rebel legislators and accused the BJP of using money power to lure its members.

In a counter offensive after 13 MLAs resigned Saturday dealing a blow to the 13-month-old government, a delegation of Congress leaders met Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar and submitted the petition seeking disqualification of the rebel legislators in line with the decision taken at a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) Tuesday.

The move comes a day after all the ministers in the Congress-JDS coalition government resigned, paving the way for a cabinet reshuffle to accommodate disgruntled legislators.