Bengaluru: Karnataka Congress leader Anand Singh resigned as an MLA today (July 1). He is likely to quit the party soon, said reports. Anand has already submitted his resignation to Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar. The Karnataka Congress has not reacted to the development yet.

However, Congress MLA Bheema Naik said Anand's resignation is an insult to the people who had elected him. He slammed the BJP for ‘Operation Kamala’, to poach Congress-JD(S) leaders.

Recently, Anand had expressed his disappointment over the HD Kumaraswamy led Congress-JD(S) coalition government favouring selling of land to Jindal company (JSW).

He had asked the government not to sell 3,667 acres of land to the company that allegedly owes Rs 2,000 crore to the state government.

Vijayanagara (Ballari district) MLA Anand was identified in the group of dissidents from the Congress party. Anand was visibly upset with the party after a brawl with Congress MLA Kampli Ganesh in the Eagleton Resort in Bengaluru in January.

All 78 MLAs from Congress were holed up in Eagleton Resort in Bengaluru as there were rumours of BJP trying to poach MLAs to destabilise the coalition government. A fight broke out between Ganesh and Anand and the latter was beaten up by Ganesh. Though Anand was admitted to a hospital with injuries, the Congress had tried to hush up the matter by saying there was no fight inside the resort.

This had made Anand angry and Ganesh was arrested after one month of search in Gujarat. Since then, the rumours of Anand resigning were rampant.

Speculations are ripe that Anand is likely to join the BJP. There are also rumours that seven more MLAs are all set to resign from their posts and the Congress party.

Anand had quit BJP to join Congress in January 2018, ahead of Assembly election that was held in May 2018.