Shivakumar meets rebel Congress MLA Nagaraj in Bengaluru, asks to reconsider resignation

Bengaluru: Amid ongoing political turmoil in Karnataka, Congress leader D K Shivakumar visited the residence of Congress MLA and state minister MTB Nagaraj early on Saturday morning to convince him to take back his resignation.

Hoskote MLA Nagaraj and Chikballapur Congress MLA Dr K Sudhakar resigned from the Assembly on July 10.

Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar had ruled out accepting their resignations "overnight". "Two MLAs Dr K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj have resigned from the Assembly. I have not accepted any resignation, I cannot do it overnight like that. I have given them time on 17th. I will go through the procedure and take a decision," Kumar had said on July 10 while speaking to media persons in Bengaluru.

Meanwhile, on Friday, the Supreme Court took up the pleas of 10 dissident MLAs and directed the Speaker to maintain status quo on their resignation and disqualification till July 16.

The 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) government slumped into crisis following the resignation of 10 MLAs from the membership of the state Assembly last week.