Dharam sacks Siddaramaiah

Karnataka chief minister N Dharam Singh has recommended to the governor that three ministers be dropped from the state council of ministers.

The ministers are deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah and ministers H C Mahadevappa and Satish Jharkhihole.

Meanwhile, the legislative assembly speaker Krishna has accepted the Janata Dal party resolution of electing M P Prakash as Janata Dal legislative party [JD(S)LP] leader.

There has been a frenetic pace of activity across all the major parties in the state. While the Janata Dal is busy watching Congress' moves, a faction in the Congress is busy wooing Siddaramaiah and BJP leader B S Yediyurappa is trying to get the MLAs to join hands with Deve Gowda's JD(S) to form government.

Siddaramaiah, who was ousted as JD(S) legislature party leader and replaced by senior JD(S) leader M P Prakash on Thursday, had refused to step down, maintaining that the JD(S) legislative party (JDSLP) meet convened by the Deve Gowda camp was 'illegal'.

"I hope the chief minister will not take such a decision," Siddaramaiah said in the morning, after he deferred the JD(S)LP meet called by him for lack of a quorum on Thursday, when he was asked by reporters about the Gowda camp's moves to get him sacked.