Bangalore: The Janata Dal (Secular) faces an tricky situation on the question of initiating action against the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and seven MLAs associated with him who have defied the party whip and acted against the interests of the party for nearly a year now.

While Mr. Siddaramaiah is all set to walk out of the JD(S), of which he is a founder member, and join the Congress, the seven MLAs associated with him will technically be members of the JD(S) till the term of the 12th Assembly ends.

Legal experts consulted

A top JD(S) leader told The Hindu here on Monday that the party had consulted legal experts and was refraining from taking any action against the recalcitrant MLAs. He feared that if expelled, they were likely to return to the House armed with a stay order from the court.

The defiance by the eight legislators, along with the MLA expelled from the party, Vaijnath Patil, has reached a peak with all of them staging a dharna in the well of the Assembly demanding that Mr. Siddaramaiah be permitted to make a statement prior to submitting his resignation from the Assembly. The Congress is also backing them.

Most MLAs suspended

Interestingly, the JD(S), which heads the coalition government in the State, has a legislature party that is largely made up of suspended legislators. Apart from the nine-member group headed by Mr. Siddaramaiah, 40 MLAs led by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy were also served with suspension notices after they defied the directions of national president H.D. Deve Gowda and aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government. In all, 40 of the 59 JD(S) MLAs have been suspended and, of the remaining ten, five are not really working in the interests of the party. The former Minister and senior JD(S) leader P.G.R. Sindhia, who had hitherto maintained a low profile, has also been extending support to Mr. Siddaramaiah over the past few days.

The JD(S) leadership is, thus, hamstrung in taking any action. Assembly Speaker Krishna, who had served notices on eight breakaway JD(S) members asking why they should not be disqualified under the anti-defection law for allegedly voting against the party candidates in the June 1 elections to the Legislative Council from the Legislative Assembly, is yet to initiate any action.

Time sought for reply

The legislators concerned are yet to submit their explanation to the Speaker, but have sought more time to do so.

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