Rebel MLA Shivaram Hebbar was in his constituency of Yellapur in coastal Karnataka on Thursday to apologise to voters for resigning abruptly.
With the coalition government in Karnataka collapsing following Tuesday’s floor test, one of the rebel MLAs Shivaram Hebbar, who returned to the state on Thursday said, “Siddaramaiah was the one who instigated us. We are still with Congress and we have nothing to do with BJP forming government.” Shivaram was one of the 15 rebel MLAs who had withdrawn support to the government, which led to the recent political crisis. They were holed up in a Mumbai luxury hotel from July 6 to the advantage of the BJP. He was in his constituency of Yellapur in coastal Karnataka on Thursday to apologise to his voters for resigning abruptly. This statement to reporters by the rebel MLA has irked Siddaramaiah, the former chief minister and chairman of the Congress-JD(S) coordination committee. In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah said those were “false allegations with mala fide intention”. Siddaramaiah said, “Media houses are reporting that few rebel MLAs have claimed that I instigated them to resign & destabilize our govt. This is nothing but a false allegation with malafide intension. I will give them a befitting reply if they repeat the same in front of me (sic).” “Rebel MLAs are trying to shift the blame on me after wide spread public backlash against them for betraying & back-stabbing both the electorate & the party. Everything will be clear when the dust settles but by then they would have bitten the dust,” he added. Siddaramaiah said there were numerous baseless allegations against him even when he was the CM and that this is not the first or last time that he is facing such allegations. Out of the 15 rebels who were responsible for destabilising the Kumaraswamy government, some were known to be Siddaramaiah’s men who had often made controversial statements such as “Siddaramaiah is still our PM” during the last government’s tenure. There were also consistent and continuous speculations suggesting Siddaramaiah’s hand in undermining the sitting CM even though he would publicly deny them. It was also reported how following the Lok Sabha debacle, Siddaramaiah had reportedly sought the High Command’s nod to pull away from the JD(S), his former party which he had left in “not so good” terms. Ahead of Tuesday’s trust vote, Siddaramaiah on the floor of the House said, “Never. We will never take them back. Those who have fallen victims to Operation Kamala will never be taken back, even if there are floods, or an apocalypse or even if the sky is falling down." However, reports suggest that KPCC working secretary Eshwar Khandre was heading to Maharashtra to meet the rebels. These rebel MLAs await their fate at the hands of Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar who will decide if their resignations will be accepted, or if they will be disqualified. If disqualified, these MLAs can’t seek re-election in the present term of the Assembly. Hence, they can’t become ministes as one needs to be elected within the six months of assuming ministership.
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