Bangalore: Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, facing a stern test with a number of BJP Assembly members quitting their seats and to the party, on Saturday said they could not be stopped from defecting but claimed that his government was safe.
The BJP government is at the fag end of its tenure with Assembly elections due in May and the party is witnessing a number of defection with the next election in sight.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a function, Mr Shettar claimed that there was no threat to his government and if some MLAs who were elected on BJP ticket wanted to quit the party and the house, ‘let them’, he merely said.
‘We have the majority and there is no problem for the government. We will take a decision later,’ the Chief Minister insisted.
This gave an indication that if more BJP legislators quit the house, the Chief Minister may be forced to seek dissolution of the Assembly, elections for which is due in May.
The lone BJP government in the South is in danger of collapsing as 15 legislators from the party have already quit reducing the BJP strength to 106 in the 224-member Assembly, which now has an effective strength of 209.
It also has support of a independent MLA who is a minister in Shettar cabinet. While Congress has 71 members, Janata Dal(S) has 25 and seven others, including the minister, are independents.
On Frday, former forest minister C P Yogishwar had from the membership of the house and joined the Congress while another former minister Raju Gowda had quit his post but was yet to resign from the membership.
Earlier, B S Yeddyurappa had quit the party and the house and later 12 of his followers followed suit by quitting both from the BJP and the Assembly. Last year, a BJP MLA had resigned to his seat due to personal reasons. (UNI)