Supreme Court asks rebel Karnataka MLAs to meet Speaker at 6 pm
New Delhi, July 11 (IBNS): The Supreme Court has asked the rebel Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs of Karnataka to meet the Vidha Soudha Speaker at 6 pm on Thursday after they had moved the top court seeking a direction to the Speaker to accept their resignations, media reports said.
The top court has also ordered a police protection for the rebel MLAs.
The rebel lawmakers, who are parked at Renaissance Hotel in Mumbai, had also sought the top court to ask the Speaker to stop threatening them with disqualifications.
Days after 16 Congress-JDS MLAs had withdrawn their support to the Karnataka government, two independent MLAs on Wednesday pulled themselves out of the HD Kumaraswamy government, giving a fresh jolt to the ruling coalition. As a result, the coalition's tally of seats fell from 118 to 100 in a 224-member Assembly. The majority mark is 113.
If the resignations of 16 MLAs are accepted by the Speaker, the halfway mark in 208-member Assembly will fall to 105 giving the single largest party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a smooth sail to power with its tally of 105 seats.
A new drama unfolded in Mumbai a day ago after Congress' crisis-manager DK Shivakumar went to meet the rebel MLAs at Renaissance Hotel but was stopped by police of the BJP-ruled state.
Later Mumbai Congress leader Milind Deora went to the spot but he was arrested along with Shivakumar.
