Day after announcing resignation withdrawal, K'taka Cong MLA joins rebels in Mumbai

A day after announcing the withdrawal of his resignation, Karnataka Congress legislator MTB Nagaraj on Sunday afternoon arrived at the Mumbai hotel where 14 rebel MLAs of Congress-JD(S) coalition are staying.

Nagaraj was accompanied by BJP MLA R Ashok at the hotel.

The Congress legislator arrived from Bengaluru by a special flight.

Owing to the deepening crisis, BJP state president BS Yeddyurappa said that he will request Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to resign immediately.

"I will request CM HD Kumaraswamy to resign immediately because more than 15 MLAs from JDS and Congress, and also two independent Ministers have resigned and they have reflected that they will support BJP," he told reporters in Bengaluru.

Earlier, the BJP strongman had asked Kumaraswamy to prove his government's majority in the Assembly on Monday.

"The Chief Minister had said that he would not continue without seeking a trust vote. He should fulfill his commitment on Monday. We will wait till then," he had said.

Hoskote MLA Nagaraj and Chikballapur Congress MLA K Sudhakar Rao were among the rebel Congress- JD(S) MLAs, who resigned from the Assembly on July 10.

After meetings with Congress leaders DK Shivakumar and Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, Nagaraj had on Saturday expressed his wish to stay with the party.

"Sudhakar and I had given resignations from MLAs' post. All the leaders are asking me to stay in the Congress since morning. I have decided to stay in the party," Nagraj had said.

On Saturday, five more dissident legislators -- Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraju, Munirathna and Roshan Baig -- approached the Supreme Court seeking its direction to Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar to accept their "voluntarily" resignations and not proceed to disqualify them.

A bunch of dissidents had earlier approached the top court with the same demand and the court had ordered a status quo in the case on Friday

Yeddyurappa accepted that he was in contact with the rebel MLAs of Congress and JD(S) who are staying at a hotel in Mumbai.

"They are all happy and I am in touch with them," he said when asked if he is in contact with the rebel MLAs.

Independent MLAs R Shankar and H Nagesh, who took back their support from the coalition government on July 8, have written a letter to the Speaker asking him to arrange their seating in the opposition benches in the Assembly.