Congress’ Reddy, JDS’ Gopalaiah skip hearing with speaker

Bengaluru, Jul 16: Two of the rebel MLAs - R Ramalinga Reddy of Congress and Gopalaiah of Janata Dal (Secular) - have skipped a personal hearing fixed by Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.

Ramalinga Reddy, who resigned from the assembly on July 6, informed the Speaker that he was unable to attend the meeting due to a private emergency. He had also abstained from the legislature session citing a similar reason.

After Reddy, along with 11 others rebel MLAs resigned on July 6, Kumar had asked Reddy and another JD(S) MLA Gopalaiah to personally appear before him on Monday and convince him that they had resigned “voluntarily and genuinely”.

Though Congress and JD(S) leaders were elated at his decision, sources said Reddy has opted to play it safe ahead of the Supreme Court’s crucial decision on the resignation of rebel MLAs. “He’ll only appear before the Speaker if the apex court rules in favour of the rebel MLAs,’’ they added.

When Reddy was asked whether he’d attend the monsoon session on Monday, he said: “I have submitted my resignation and it is before the Speaker. Till he accepts it, I am the member of the House and I am still with the Congress.’’

However, Congress leaders maintained they sense a change of mind in Reddy after senior Congress leaders, including Mallikarjun Kharge, ex-MP from Kalaburagi, and water resources minister DK Shivakumar met him at his residence and persuaded him to withdraw his resignation.

However, Gopalaiah, holed up in a Mumbai hotel, skipped the hearing too and sent a letter seeking another date.

Congress leaders feel if Reddy is persuaded to withdrawing his resignation, other MLAs from Bengaluru, including ST Somashekar, Gopalaiah, Munirathna, Byrathi Basavaraju and Roshan Baig, may follow suit and help them to save the JD(S)-Congress government. On July 17, the Speaker had asked two rebel MLAs — MTB Nagaraj and D Sudhakar — to appear before him. Three other rebels — Anand Singh, Pratap Gouda Patil and Narayan Gowda — scheduled to meet the Speaker for a hearing last Friday skipped it without giving any reason.