Bengaluru: Taking refuge in the Supreme Court direction to maintain the status quo on proceedings against 13 rebel Congress and JD(S) legislators, three MLAs did not appear before the Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar for a personal hearing.
On Tuesday, the Speaker had asked Vijaynagar Congress MLA Anand Singh, KR Pet JD(S) MLA Narayana Gowda and Maski Congress MLA Pratap Gouda Patil, to be present before him for a personal hearing on their resignations from the Assembly. Though, the Speaker was present in his chamber, none of the MLAs turned up reportedly due to the apex court's direction to the Speaker not to act on the resignations or disqualification petition of the rebel lawmakers.
While Mr Patil and Mr Gowda are staying at a hotel in Mumbai, Mr Singh left for Goa from KIAL. With this, the legislators seem to have made up their mind to stick to their stand.
Earlier, Mr Ramesh Kumar had said only five of 13 resignation letters were in the prescribed format, and had given the five MLAs- Ramalinga Reddy, A.H. Vishwanath, Anand Singh, Pratap Gouda Patil and Narayana Gowda different dates to appear before him. The hearing of Reddy and Vishwanath is scheduled for July 15 but it is not known if the duo will present themselves before the Speaker.
Meanwhile, Gokak Congress MLA and the architect of dissidence in the Congress, Ramesh Jarkiholi is learnt to asserted that none of the MLAs will participate in the session since they don't want the coalition government to continue.
