Karnataka MLA poaching: No problem to Congress-JD(S) govt, says Siddaramaiah; 4 'missing' MLAs served party notice

Bengaluru: All the four legislators who did not turn up at a recent Congress legislature party meeting in Bengaluru have been served notices, former Karnataka chief minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah said. [caption id=“attachment_4458163” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah. PTI[/caption] Speaking to reporters, he said, “The situation is not like it is being portrayed in the media. Notice has been served to all four MLAs (Ramesh Jarakiholi, Mahesh Kamatihalli, B Nagendra and Umesh Jadhav). There is no problem to the government,” Siddaramaiah said. Siddaramaiah also said three of the MLAs had responded to the notice, with the exception of Umesh Jadhav, the MLA from Chincholi who has not replied yet. “I have seen B Nagendra’s reply. He said he is loyal to the party and they never met any BJP leaders. I haven’t seen replies by the other two MLAs. We will take action accordingly after looking at all replies,” the former CM said. Four Karnataka Congress MLAs on 18 January abstained from the Congress legislature party meeting, which decided to move the rest of the 76 party legislators to a resort. The meeting was convened by the party to assess whether its flock was intact amid speculation that some of the party MLAs had switched over to the BJP. The Congress, which shares power with JDS, has 80 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly, including the Speaker. Accordingly, 79 MLAs were expected to attend the meeting, held under the supervision of central leaders KC Venugopal and Mallikarjun Kharge.