K'taka Cong to take action against rebels

BENGALURU: The ruling Congress in Karnataka on Friday decided to take legal action against its four 'rebel' legislators for defying the party whip to attend the 10-day Budget Session of the Assembly and skipping its legislature party meeting here.

"We have decided to take legal action against the four MLAs who defied the party whip to attend the Budget Session of the Assembly and remained away from Friday's special legislature party meeting here," Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah told reporters here. The four legislators are Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani), Umesh Jadhav (Chincholi) and B. Nagendra (Ballari). Though the four responded to the second notice Siddaramaiah served on them on Thursday for skipping the first two days of the ongoing Budget Session, the former Congress CM said the unanimous opinion of CLP was for legal action against them under the anti-defection law.