NCP feud: SC to hear Sharad Pawar’s plea on rebel MLAs Oct 13
The Sharad Pawar group had filed petitions before the Speaker Narwekar seeking disqualification of 40 MLAs for anti-party.
Amidst the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka, five more rebel Congress rebel lawmakers are set to approach the Supreme Court asking it to direct Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to accept their resignations.
The five rebels are Anand Singh, Munirathna, Roshan Baig, MTB Nagaraj and K Sudhakar.
Singh resigned on July 1, Munirthna on July 6, Baig on July 9 and Nagaraj and Sudhakar on July 10.
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Nagaraj is also the Housing Minister in the coalition government. He was made a minister on December 22 when the Cabinet was reshuffled and expanded.
Earlier on Wednesday, 10 rebel MLAs — seven from the Congress and three from the JD(S) — moved the Supreme Court alleging that they were being threatened and that the Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh was sitting on their resignation letters in violation of the Constitution.
Despite the court’s order to spell out his decision on the resignations of the 16 MLAs by Thursday night, the Speaker chose to reserve his decision and showed no interest in taking an urgent call on the matter.
Meanwhile, the rebel lawmakers told the court on Friday that the Karnataka Speaker had questioned their move to approach the Supreme Court and claimed that he said “go to hell” to them in front of media.
The MLAs further asked the bench to give the Speaker one or two days to decide on the resignations adding that a contempt notice should be issued against him if he does not decide by the stipulated time.
The 13-month-old Karnataka coalition government is trying to save its face desperately after a total of 18 MLAs resigned from the ruling alliance – 13 from Congress and three from JD (S) by Saturday and two more, including one Independent on Monday.
If the resignations are accepted, the ruling coalition will slip below the half-way mark and rival BJP will have a majority.
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