What comes as a tough blow to the awkward coalition the Congress-JD(S) government, stitched up in an attempt to knuckle down the BJP government in the recent Karnataka assembly elections, is that the lone BSP Minister, N Mahesh, resigned his position in the coalition ministry on Thursday.
Though the minister said he is resigning over “personal reasons”, it is believed the surprise move came days after BSP chief Mayawati announced that her party would not forge an alliance with the Congress “at any cost” for the Assembly polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
Claiming that the decision was taken without consulting the party supremo Mayawati, the Minister said, “I am resigning my post as a cabinet minister but continue as an MLA and I support the JD(S) and Kumaraswamy… I want to concentrate on my constituency.”
Assuring to continue supporting the coalition government, Mahesh said he would campaign for the JD(S) during the bypolls for three Lok Sabha and two assembly seats on November 3. “I do not have any grouse against anybody in the government. As a minister, I did my best and toured the state. This resignation is purely due to personal reasons,” he said.
Congress party has been incidentally facing a massive internal turmoil, as they move toward the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Along with several disclosures of rifts within the JDS-Congress alliance doing the rounds, continuous news of many regional leaders distancing themselves from the party have emerged. Recently their veteran leader and Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee Vice-President Mani Shankar Pandey, who has been closely associated with the party for over 45 years, had resigned from the party.
In a similar setback, senior Congress leader and 4 times Meghalaya CM DD Lapang had resigned from the party after citing frustrations due to faulty party policies.
Carrying on the latest trend, four suspended Bihar Congress leaders had in February stepped down to join Nitish Kumar led Janata Dal (United).
Similarly, in the month of April, we reported that the Youth Congress leaders from the Dakshin Kannada district submitted mass resignations over the party’s decision to deny a ticket to Youth Congress president of Dakshina Kannada District.
During the same time, we also reported Congress MLC Dinesh Pratap Singh, MLA Rakesh Pratap Singh and the Zilla Panchayat chairman Awadhesh Pratap Singh, from Rae Bareli, which is one if the key constituency of the Congress, quitted the party citing neglect from top leaders of the party despite winning consistently from the constituency.
