Two Independent MLAs seek seats on opposition side in Karnataka Assembly
Bengaluru: Two Independent MLAs, who recently withdrew support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka and sided with the BJP, have written to the Assembly speaker requesting him to allot them seats on the opposition side in the House.
In separate letters to the speaker, both H Nagesh (Mulabagilu MLA) and R Shankar (Ranebennur MLA) stated that they had withdrawn support to the ruling coalition and requested him to make seating arrangements for them on the opposition side in the Assembly.
The monsoon session of the Karnataka Assembly began on Friday and is scheduled to end on July 26. Both the Independent legislators were absent on the first day of the session.
According to sources, they are said to be camped at a hotel in Mumbai.
Nagesh, who was the state small scale industries minister, and Shankar, the municipal administration minister, had met Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan, submitted their letters of resignation and conveyed their decision to withdraw support to the government to him.
With 16 MLAs -- 13 of the Congress and three of the Janata Dal (Secular) -- resigning from the Assembly, the coalition government is facing a serious crisis in the southern state.
On June 14, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had expanded his cabinet by inducting Nagesh and Shankar, apparently to provide stability to his 13-month-old wobbly government.
It was seen as a move to ensure that the two Independent legislators did not jump the ship once again in favour of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Shankar was inducted from the Congress's share and Nagesh from the JD(S) quota in the ministry.
Both had, in December last year, sided with the BJP on not being inducted into the ministry during a cabinet rejig and written to the governor informing him about their withdrawal of support to the government.
As the BJP then failed in its alleged attempts to topple the coalition and form the government, the two lawmakers subsequently retraced their steps to be back in the ruling alliance.
With Shankar and Nagesh withdrawing support to the government, the ruling coalition's current strength in the Assembly is 116 (Congress 78, JD(S) 37 and BSP one), besides the speaker.
With the support of the two Independent legislators, the BJP now has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the halfway mark is 113.
If the resignations of the 16 Congress-JD(S) MLAs are accepted, the ruling coalition's tally will be reduced to 100. In case of a trust vote in the Assembly, the speaker has a vote too.
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Man dies on Bengaluru road of heart attack
Bengaluru (PTI): A 34-year-old mechanic has died after falling off a scooter on his way to a referral hospital, as the medical facility that diagnosed him to have suffered a heart attack did not provide necessary first aid, the family of the deceased claimed.
A CCTV video showing his injured wife pleading with passersby for help while her husband Venkataramanan lay on the road after falling from the two-wheeler on December 13 has gone viral recently.
According to the family, Venkataramanan complained of chest pain, and his wife Roopa rushed him on their scooter from their home in Balaji Nagar around 3.30 am to a private hospital where treatment was denied, citing the non-availability of a doctor, the family said.
Then, she took him to another hospital where ECG was done, which showed him to have suffered a heart attack. However they immediately referred him to the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences. The family alleged that no basic treatment was provided there. On the way to Jayadeva hospital, Venkataramanan allegedly suffered chest pain again and the couple fell off the scooter, the family said.
In the CCTV video, injured Roopa can be seen pleading with passersby to help her husband reach the hospital, but no one responded until a cab driver stopped to check on them. With his help, she reached Jayadeva hospital, where doctors declared Venkataramanan brought dead, the family said. His family later donated his eyes.
