With the Election Commission hinting that it could hasten the process to hold Assembly elections in Karnataka, a nervous Congress leadership asked Maharashtra Governor S M Krishna today to resign and return to Bangalore “at the earliest” to take charge of the party in his home state.

Sources told The Indian Express the former Karnataka Chief Minister held talks with Sonia Gandhi until late this evening and was expected to put in his papers as early as Wednesday or Thursday, at least three weeks before he was originally scheduled to quit.

Krishna was set to return to Mumbai from Bangalore on Tuesday when he was asked to change his plans and fly to Delhi instead, sources said, indicating the seriousness with which the party was treating the likelihood of the EC changing its mind over polls in the southern state.

“There is a strong possibility that the elections could be held in May and so he is expected to resign, come to Mumbai and then go to Bangalore,” the source said.

Krishna had earlier planned to stay on in Mumbai’s Raj Bhawan through this month, with the Assembly’s budget session beginning March 10, and move to Bangalore either in the last week of the month or early April.

Congress sources had last month told The Indian Express that AICC treasurer and former Madhya Pradesh governor Motilal Vora was the frontrunner to replace Krishna in Mumbai, followed by former CEC M S Gill, HRD Minister Arjun Singh and former Orissa CM J B Patnaik.

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