Karnataka MLA Resign, Karnataka Political Crisis The rebel JD(S)-Congress MLAs has approached Mumbai Police, saying they felt “threatened” by their state leaders and do not want to meet them in this regard.

High drama was witnessed outside Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel after Congress leader D K Shivakumar was prevented from meeting the 10 dissident JD(S)-Congress legislators who have been staying at the premises since Saturday. The rebels had earlier approached Mumbai Police, saying they felt “threatened” by their state leaders and do not want to meet them in this regard.

The Supreme Court, on the other hand, is likely to take up a plea by the rebels against Karnataka Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar for not accepting the resignations of the rebel MLAs. Kumar had rejected the resignations of nine of 14 coalition MLAs on the ground that they were not tendered in the correct format. The Speaker has fixed dates over the next six days to meet and interview the five MLAs whose resignations were found to be in order.

The Speaker’s decision gives the Congress-JD(S) combine breathing room to pull the government back from the brink of collapse — if the resignations were accepted, the alliance would have been reduced to a minority of 103 in the 224-member House, after two Independent MLAs, too, withdrew support and tendered resignations Monday.