KPCC mulling over issuing fresh notices to MLAs who skipped CLP meeting

The Congress party in Karnataka will issue a fresh round of notices to four of its legislators who did not attend the recently-held Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meetings.

The party has also asked them to appear in person and explain the cause of their absence.

"Now they will have to come. They had not yet come and have only written letters," said Dinesh Gundu Rao, President, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC). "They have to explain their absence during the crucial period and they have to give a very good explanation because if someone is absent for a couple of days then it's ok but they were absent for weeks and there seem to be some other issues behind their disappearance."

Four Karnataka Congress MLAs on January 18 abstained from the CLP meeting, which decided to move rest of the 76 legislators to a resort. The meeting was convened by the party to assess whether its flock was intact amid speculations that some of the party MLAs had switched over to the BJP.

The Congress, which shares power with JD-S, has 80 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly, including the Speaker. Accordingly, 79 MLAs were expected to attend the CLP meeting held under the supervision of central leaders K C Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge.