ؓBengaluru: A day after being dropped from the state cabinet, former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has said he has decided to resign as MLA. An audio clip of Jarkiholi, a five-time legislator from Gokak, confirming the move has gone viral. He has stated in the clip that he is still unclear about the number of legislators who will also join him.

“I may quit in the next few days or it may take a week or two. But anyway I have decided to quit,’’ he says in the clip. He told a section of the media too on Sunday that he has decided to resign from the assembly.

However, party leader Siddaramaiah said in Belagavi on Sunday that he will reach out to Jarkiholi.

After staying confined to his house on Saturday, Jarkiholi is said to have left for Bengaluru on Sunday to join a group of disgruntled party legislators from Belagavi, Ballari and Raichur. According to Jarkiholi’s associates, he will explain to this group on Monday about the turn of events that have forced him to take this decision.

Speaking to a section of media on Sunday, Jarkiholi said he will make it public which leader asked him to wait for some time and not quit as an MLA in a hurry. Jarkiholi said he is aware of the fact that his phone calls are being tapped for the last few weeks.

Sources said two Congress MLAs from Belagavi district (Mahesh Kumatalli from Athani and Shrimant Patil from Kagwad) and five to six-party legislators from Ballari, Raichur and Koppal may hold meetings in Bengaluru over the next few days before quitting as MLAs.

This group has been preparing to quit for the past three months but they had to wait relying on the assurances which a party top leader gave them, sources said.The BJP top leadership in the state is being updated by these legislators about the outcome of all their meetings in the past few weeks. Jarkiholi not only met BJP leaders secretely on several occasions in the past few months, but he also openly joined them when the legislature session was in progress in Belagavi recently.

However, Congress top leaders Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao, who were in Belagavi for a brief halt before leaving for Jamakhandi on Sunday, stated that none of the legislators were quitting the party. “It is impossible to include every MLA in the cabine. We are in touch with party MLA B C Patil and yet to meet Ramesh Jarkiholi,’’ said Rao.