K'taka crisis: MTB Nagraj arrives in Mumbai as he continues to flip-flop

Amid Congress' efforts to woo its rebel MLAs, Hoskote legislator MTB Nagraj continues to flip-flop the sides as he again arrived at Renaissance Hotel here on Sunday where other lawmakers are staying.

This comes a day after Nagraj had softened his stand and agreed to withdraw his resignation after meeting party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Nagraj late on Saturday night announced that he was withdrawing his resignation and would remain with the Congress party.

But today, he reached Mumbai where he met dissident MLAs. However, the legislator maintained that he is not here to convince them to change their decision.

"I am not here to convince them but to support them," he said.

Nagraj's statement contradicts Siddaramaiah's remark claiming that he was confident of getting most MLAs on board in the floor test of the Congress-JDS coalition government.

Nagaraj and Chikballapur Congress MLA K Sudhakar Rao were among the rebel Congress-JDS MLAs, who resigned from the Assembly on July 10.

"Sudhakar and I had resigned from MLA's post. All the leaders are asking me to stay in the Congress since morning. I have decided to stay in the party," Nagraj told media persons in Bengaluru last night.

Meanwhile, Congress MLA ST Somshekhar held a press conference here and said: "We won't take our resignations back. Sudhakar Rao is in Delhi and he is also in our support. He may join us in Mumbai anytime soon."

Asked if they are being supported by BJP leader R Ashok, he said: "Ashok has nothing to do with us. He has no link with us and we are unaware of why is he here?"

He said that all rebel MLAs here are united, but there is news being run that we have differences but that is "incorrect".

On July 11, the dissident MLAs returned to the hotel here after meeting Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar in Bengaluru.

The Supreme Court had directed them to meet the Speaker and resubmit their resignations afresh.

In a twist to Karnataka political stalemate, the apex court on July 12 had ordered a status quo until July 16 on a plea filed by 10 dissident MLAs of Congress and JD(S) seeking a direction to the Assembly Speaker to accept their resignation and not proceed with the applications for their disqualification.