Karnataka: 10 Congress-JDS MLAs Reach Vidhana Soudha, Meet Speaker

Ten out of 16 Karnataka rebel MLAs staying at a luxury hotel in Mumbai reached Bengaluru Thursday afternoon to meet the Assembly Speaker. The legislators boarded a special flight to the Karnataka capital at 2.50 pm.

Bengaluru: Dissident MLAs from JD(S) and Congress leave Raj Bhavan after meeting with Karnataka Governor Vajuibhai Vala, in Bengaluru, Saturday, July 6, 2019. 11 legislators of the ruling alliance submitted their resignation to speaker's office. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak) (PTI7_6_2019_000130B)

BENGALURU: Ten out of 16 Karnataka rebel MLAs staying at a luxury hotel in Mumbai reached Bengaluru Thursday afternoon to meet the Assembly Speaker. The legislators boarded a special flight to the Karnataka capital at 2.50 pm. The bench, comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, also directed the Karnataka DGP to provide protection to the 10 MLAs from the airport to the Assembly after their arrival from Mumbai. Police had made tight security arrangements at the Vidhana Soudha, and created a 'zero traffic corridor' to enable the MLAs reach the Speaker's office well on time. Speaking to reporters earlier, the speaker said the MLAs approaching the apex court made things look murky. "I had not prevented them (disgruntled MLAs who resigned) from coming. I dont know why the hell they went to the supreme court to meet me," Kumar told reporters outside the Vidhana Soudha before leaving for lunch. "There was no need for them (MLAs who resigned) to approach the Supreme Court and get me an advice that I should meet them. They could have willingly come here. That itself shows the whole thing is murky." The development came after the Supreme Court allowed the rebel MLAs of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka to meet the Speaker at 6 pm to convey to him their decision to resign. The 10 rebel MLAs had moved apex court alleging that the Karnataka Assembly Speaker was not accepting their resignations. The MLAs who have filed the petition are 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. The MLAs have alleged that the Speaker was protecting the government, which is in minority now, and sought a direction that he be restrained from proceeding with the application for their disqualification.

#WATCH: Rebel Congress MLA Byrathi Basavaraj runs into the Speaker's office in Vidhana Soudha, Bengaluru. #Karnataka pic.twitter.com/L6zrzPqCub

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2019

The MLAs were camping here since Saturday evening after resigning as legislators and withdrawing support to the 13-month-old government in the southern state. High drama was witnessed Wednesday as senior Congress minister in Karnataka, D K Shivakumar, was prevented from entering the hotel where the MLAs were staying. Police detained Shivakumar and sent him back to Bengaluru after the legislators informed the Mumbai police commissioner that they faced threat from the minister. At the Mumbai airport Thursday, the legislators were glued to political developments in their home state on television as they completed formalities for their departure. "The rebel MLAs can now appear before the Speaker in Karnataka. They flew to Bengaluru so that they can meet the speaker and put forth their statement," a source said. The MLAs -- including those of the Congress, the JD(S) and Independents - were staying at the Renaissance Hotel in Powai after resigning from the Karnataka Assembly and withdrawing support to the coalition government. They left the hotel at 1.30 pm Thursday and proceeded to the Mumbai airport.