Karnataka crisis: BJP presses for trust vote on Monday

A day after Kumaraswamy made a surprise announcement in the Assembly that he would seek a trust vote, efforts were intensified to reach out to the dissident legislators. After almost day-long negotiations, it appeared that

Congress had made some headway in pacifying one of its MLAs, MTB Nagaraj, who hinted that he might consider withdrawing his resignation, but fell short of making any final announcement till the evening. The BJP, however, made it clear that it will press Kumaraswamy to seek the trust vote in the Assembly on Monday, a day prior to the Supreme Court hearing the petition of rebel MLAs,who have resigned.

The independents H Nagesh and R Shankar, who are now supporting the BJP, have written to the speaker requesting him to allot them seats on the opposition side in the House. Congress leadership has also made attempts to persuade other MLAs, sources said, adding Kumaraswamy himself was trying to persuade at least four rebel Congress MLAs to withdraw their resignations. Trying to throw a spanner in their efforts, a group of BJP leaders,led by MLA S R Vishwanath and Bengaluru corporator Padmanabha Reddy, met seven time Congress MLA Ramalinga Reddy, who has resigned as legislator, at his residence. More on P8

----

Rebel Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj, who earlier on Saturday had hinted at reconsidering his resignation after meeting party leader D K Shivakumar, in the evening confirmed he has decided to stay back in the party.

“I have decided to stay in the party,” he said. “We will try to convince (Chikkaballapura MLA) Sudhakar (Rao) as well and both of us will take our resignation back.”