New Delhi: The fate of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in Karnataka still hangs in balance as none of the rebel MLAs from the Congress attended the legislative party meeting called on Monday.
The Congress has decided to petition the Speaker to disqualify rebel MLAs for anti-party activities, informed senior party leader Siddaramaiah after the meeting.
The former Chief Minister termed the resignations by 13 MLAs as not voluntary and genuine and sought that the provision of anti-defection law should be used against them.
The rebel MLAs should be disqualified for six years from contesting election, he added.
Meanwhile, the coalition government faced further setback today as another Congress MLA Roshan Baig submitted his resignation letter to the Speaker.
The party has already suspended him for anti-party activities. The total number of Congress candidates resigning has now gone up to 11.
Speaker Ramesh Kumar who arrived to his office today has said that he will have to look whether the resignation letters were submitted according to the provisions of the constitution and whether they were voluntarily given by the legislators.
The strength of Congress-JD(S) coalition in the 224 member assembly has come down to 103 with opposition BJP claiming support of 107 MLAs.
The BJP has demanded the resignation of Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy saying that the government has lost its majority.