Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jul 10: The coalition leaders are happy in the belief that the speaker's stand on the validity of some of the resignation letters has come to them as a blessing in disguise, as they are gifted with some time to convince their legislators to stay with the government. They have set into motion an effort to remove all obstacles in the smooth functioning of the state government.

Immediately after the speaker announced his decision, national level Congress leaders, Kapil Sibal and Ghulam Nabi Azad reached Bengaluru. The Congress leaders aim at consulting them on how to ensure that the legislators who stay adamant with their decision to resign are made to face disqualification. The other aim of the party is to use the good offices of the top leadership to convince Ramalinga Reddy and Roshan Baig to withdraw their resignations. The party is said to be trying to give rise to a fear among the dissidents about the likelihood of them getting disqualified from contesting elections for a period of six years.

It is said that although Ramalinga Reddy and Soumya Reddy have complaints about Congress leadership, they are not prepared to leave the party. That is why the Congress has not included the name of Ramalinga Reddy in the letter addressed to the speaker seeking disqualification of certain legislators. In the meantime, minster, D K Shivakumar, is in Mumbai in an effort to assuage the feelings of the dissident leaders camping there and win over their confidence.

It may be recalled that the special investigation team has already summoned Baig to appear before it relating to IMA jewellery scam.

In the meantime, former advocate general, Ashok Harnahalli, has said that it would be impossible for the speaker to take steps against the dissident legislators on the basis of letter written by the Congress as they have resigned from their posts and not from the Congress. Several dissidents have said that they cannot be cowed down by threats of disqualification. One of the dissidents, Byrathi Basavaraj, said that he will not withdraw his resignation at any cost and that if he is disqualified, he will retire from politics.