Five more rebel Karnataka Cong MLAs move SC against Speaker

New Delhi/ Mumbai: Five more rebel Congress MLAs from Karnataka moved the Supreme Court on Saturday against the Assembly Speaker not accepting their resignations. These MLAs are Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraj, Munirathna and Roshan Baig.

They have sought impleadment in the already pending application filed by the 10 other rebel MLAs on which the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. These 10 rebel MLAs of Congress- JD(S) coalition who moved the apex court earlier alleging that the Speaker was not accepting their resignations were Pratap Gouda Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, B C Patil, S T Somashekhar, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, Mahesh Kumathalli, K Gopalaiah, A H Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda.

Hearing their plea, the Supreme Court had on Friday restrained Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar from taking any decision till Tuesday on the resignation and disqualification of these 10 MLAs. Citing "weighty issues that have arisen", the apex court said it will consider the matter on July 16 and ordered that the status quo as of Friday should be maintained.

The resignations of these MLAs has plunged the H D Kumaraswamy government in Karanataka into a crisis as it faces the risk of losing its majority in the Assembly. Apart from the question of maintainability of the writ petition filed under Article 32 of the Constitution by the MLAs, the apex court had said that it needs to address as to whether the Speaker is obligated to decide on disqualification proceedings before accepting the resignations of MLAs.

The counsel for the rebels MLAs had contended that the Speaker has not decided on the resignations of the lawmakers to bind them with the party whip and disqualify them from the membership if they violate the whip on the floor of the House.

Meanwhile, 14 rebel MLAs from Karnataka, who have been camping in Mumbai since the last week, Saturday headed to Shirdi. The rebel legislators of the Congress-JD(S) will pay obeisance to Saibaba at the temple in Shirdi in Ahmednagar district.

"The MLAs left for Shirdi in a private plane," sources said. On Friday, four of the 14 legislators had visited the Siddhivinayak temple in central Mumbai and offered prayers to Lord Ganesh. The legislators have been camping in Mumbai since last Saturday.