10 ex-JD-S leaders join Congress in Karnataka

Ten Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) members, including seven former MLAs, on Sunday joined the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka.

The leaders - B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, M.C. Nanaiah, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, R. Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, H.C. Balakrishna, Bheema Naik, Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda, Iqbal Ansari, Sarovar Srinivas and B. Ramakrishna - joined the party during party chief Rahul Gandhi's rally here, party leaders said.

"Ten JD-S leaders joined Congress in the presence of the party President Rahul Gandhi," tweeted Congress' state unit president G. Parameshwara.

Of the 10 leaders, the seven members of the assembly had quit JD-S and tendered their resignations to Assembly Speaker K.B. Koliwad on Saturday, a day after they had claimed to have voted in favour of the Congress' third candidate G.C. Chandrasekhar in Friday's Rajya Sabha polls.

The seven - Khan, Murthy, Chaluvarayaswamy, Ansari, Balakrishna, Gowda and Naik - were earlier suspended by JD-S for allegedly defying the party's whip and cross-voting for Congress during the 2016 Rajya Sabha polls.

Khan is a three-time MLA from Chamrajpet assembly constituency, Murthy represents Pulakeshinagar assembly segment in Bengaluru and Ansari, the Gangavathi constituency in Koppal district.

Balakrishna, Bandisiddegowda and Naik are respectively the MLAs from Magadi constituency in Ramanagara district, Srirangapatna constituency in Mandya district and Hagaribommanahalli constituency in Ballari district.

Nanaiah, Srinivas and Ramakrishna are the former JD-S Members of the Legislative Council.

--IANS

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