No action against defiant MLAs?

Bengaluru: An early decision is unlikely on the disqualification petition given by the Congress state unit against four rebel MLAs who have skipped the Legislature proceedings so far.

Sources said Assembly Speaker, Ramesh Kumar himself may wait for some more time before taking a decision on the petition seeking their disqualification.

Congress sources said  the party had given the disqualification petition to warn the defiant MLAs who are still holed up in a Mumbai hotel and make sure they fall in line.  Congress Legislature Party leader and former CM, Siddaramaiah who  gave the petition to Mr Ramesh Kumar on Monday, urged the Speaker to disqualify the four MLAs, Ramesh Jarkiholi, B. Nagendra, Mahesh Kumatalli and Dr Umesh Jadhav maintaining that they had defied the party whip by not attending the CLP meetings and later the legislature session too.

Meanwhile, sources said  Mr Siddaramaiah reached out to the rebels requesting them to return to the state so that their demands could be considered. Other leaders too tried to pacify them, sources said.

However, the rebels are unlikely to return to attend the current legislature session.

Sources said that if the Congress legislators came forward to resign now, the possibility of the party pressing for their disqualification would be higher.