Karnataka rebel MLAs arrive in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Karnataka rebel MLAs, who were camping in Mumbai, arrived in Bengaluru by a special flight, hours after the Supreme Court allowed them to meet the Assembly Speaker to convey their decision to resign.

The legislators had boarded the flight to the Karnataka capital at 2.50 pm.

The top court asked the Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar to decide “forthwith” on Thursday about the resignation of 10 rebel Congress-JD(S) coalition MLAs, allowing them to meet him at 6 pm.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the decision taken by the Speaker has to be intimated on Friday when the court takes up the matter again.

The bench, comprising Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose, also directed the Karnataka DGP to provide protection to the 10 MLAs from Bengaluru airport to the Assembly after their arrival from Mumbai.

The MLAs were camping at a Mumbai Hotel since Saturday evening after resigning as legislators and withdrawing support to the 13-month-old government in the southern state.

High drama was witnessed Wednesday as senior Congress minister in Karnataka, D K Shivakumar, was prevented from entering the hotel where the MLAs were staying.

Police detained Shivakumar and sent him back to Bengaluru after the legislators informed the Mumbai police commissioner that they faced threat from the minister.

The resignation of 16 Congress-JD(S) MLAs has pushed the coalition government to the brink of collapse.