Bengaluru: Amid vigorous attempts to save the Congress-Janata Dal (S) state coalition in the floor test process carried out today, Monday, July 22, prior to that, several discussions on previous assembly and parliament decisions were taken in terms of confidence motion and several other matters. In the meantime, when the matter of rebel MLAs residing in Mumbai came up for discussion, the Congress leaders began shouting that rebel coalition MLA and independent candidate R Shankar had still not resigned from the Congress party and that he was still in favour of the party.
Presenting the arguments on the floor of the house, Minister for Rural Development, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Krishna Byre Gowda said, “R Shankar who was an independent candidate had written a letter to the Congress, mentioning that he would like to join hands with the party. After joining hands with us, he had also made it clear to the media on him being officially inducted in the party. Hence, this proves that he has not left the party and he is still with us.”
“But later in the changing political scenarios, Shankar has written a letter to the Governor of Karnataka, Vajubhai Vala that he would withdraw the support from the state coalition government and would join the Bharatiya Janata Party”, he added.
Krishna Byre Gowda also said that no matter what, he along with another independent candidate H Nagesh and other rebel Congress-JDS MLAs have withdrawn support from the coalition government but still according to him, Shankar was with the Congress party.
He then raised slogans saying, “Shankar is ours.. Shankar is ours.”
