Karnataka: CM Kumaraswamy meets rebel Cong MLA Nagaraj

Amid the ongoing political turmoil in Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy met rebel Congress MLA MTB Nagaraj at Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah's residence in Bengaluru on Saturday.

Congress leader Zameer Ahmed Khan also present during the meeting.

Earlier in the day, Nagaraj hinted about reconsidering his resignation after holding a meeting with party leader DK Shivakumar.

"Situation was such that we submitted our resignations, but now DK Shivakumar and others came and requested us to withdraw resignations, I will speak to K Sudhakar Rao and then see what is to be done, after all, I have spent decades in Congress," Congress MLA and state minister MTB Nagaraj said after a meeting at his residence.

The Hoskote MLA Nagaraj and Chikballapur Congress MLA K Sudhakar had resigned from the Assembly on July 10.

While Nagaraj made no clear announcement of taking back resignation, Shivakumar announced the same while speaking to media outside Nagaraj's residence.

Despite tendering their resignations, both Nagaraj and Sudhakar are still members of the Legislative Assembly as their resignations have yet not been accepted by the Speaker.

Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had ruled out accepting their resignations. "Two MLAs Dr K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj have resigned from the assembly. I have not accepted any resignation; I cannot do it overnight like that. I have given them time on 17th. I will go through the procedure and take a decision," Kumar had said on July 10 while speaking to media persons in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Supreme Court took up the pleas of 10 dissident MLAs and directed the speaker to maintain the status quo on their resignation and disqualification till July 16.

The 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) government slumped into crisis following the resignation of 10 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly last week.