Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Saturday addressed a press conference an hour after BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa tendered his resignation, alleging that the prime minister gave a free hand for buying of MLAs when BJP was in need of eight more legislators to win the trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly.

“PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah do not respect any institution. The PM authorised buying of MLAs. He talks of fighting corruption, but he is corruption,” Rahul Gandhi told reporters.

Asserting that the BJP doesn’t respect institutions, he said, “People saw how BJP MLAs left the House before national anthem was played. It shows they don’t respect institutions.”

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Referring to the apparent loss of BJP in Karnataka, Rahul Gandhi said, “PM Modi not bigger than India, Supreme Court; hope BJP, RSS learn lesson. We will work with other opposition parties to defeat BJP.”

Earlier, BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa resigned as the Chief Minister before facing a crucial trust vote in the Karnataka Assembly with numbers stacked against the BJP in the newly elected House.

Yeddyurappa’s emotional speech

In an emotional speech in the Assembly, Yeddyurappa said the BJP didn’t get the numbers needed to prove majority in the House.

“I will lose nothing if I lose power, my life is for the people,” he said.

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In his 15-minute speech, the 75-year-old BJP leader said there was no way he could have served the people of Karnataka as the Congress was not even allowing its MLAs to speak to their family members.

“If only people would have given us 113 seats instead of 104, we would have made this state a paradise. But I will fight for the state till my last breath. We will get 28 out of 28 seats in Lok Sabha and I will win 150 Assembly seats for Narendra Modi (in the next Assembly elections),” Yeddyurapa said.

Asserting that the mandate showed that the state’s people have rejected the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), he said: “People have voted against the Congress’ misgovernance. I have faced many ‘agni pareeksha’ (trial by fire) in the past and this trust vote is just another one.”

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After the speech, he drove to the Raj Bhavan to submit his resignation to Governor Vajubhai Vala. The resignation came two days after he took oath as the 23rd Chief Minister of the state.

(With agency inputs)