The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Siddaramaiah yet to resign

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 18, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Siddaramaiah yet to resign

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: The former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah did not submit his resignation from the Legislative Assembly on Monday, and it has been put off to Wednesday, as Speaker Krishna refused to go back on his ruling denying him permission to make a statement before he resigned.

Presspersons met Mr. Siddaramaiah and Leader of the Opposition N. Dharam Singh after the House was adjourned and asked whether they planned to move a no-confidence motion against Mr. Krishna. A decision would be taken at the appropriate time, they said.

Basavaraj Rayaraddi (Congress) pointed out that it required only 40 MLAs to move such a motion against the Speaker, and it could be done easily.

Mr. Siddaramaiah was reminded that Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy was not against him making a statement, but he wanted to reply to the bribery charge against him first.

To this, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the Opposition could do very little, as the Speaker had denied him of the opportunity to make a statement. The Opposition's attempt to convince the Speaker citing two precedents did not yield any result.

Asked about the charge made by Mr. Kumaraswamy that mining permits were given to Mr. Singh's supporters during his tenure as Chief Minister, the former Chief Minister said, "That is why we are demanding an investigation into both the mining irregularities and the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise issue by the Central Bureau of Investigation."

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