Monday, July 4 2005 16:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Thiruvananthapuram: Nine Congress MLAs loyal to veteran leader K Karunakaran are likely to resign their assembly membership and formally join the National Congress Indira (NCI) tomorrow.

According to NCI sources, the MLAs would submit their resignation to the Assembly Speaker, tomorrow morning. The decision was taken at a meeting Karunakaran had with the MLAs supporting him here today.

Though they had been in close touch with Karunakaran, they could not formally join the NCI, as they would have to face disqualification proceedings if they did so. The MLAs have found themselves in a precarious position with the monsoon session of the assembly beginning today.

Karunakaran's son and NCI president K Muraleedharan had said that MLAs voting for the UDF government in the assembly would have no place in the newly floated party.

Congress MLAs said to be in the Karunakaran camp are P Sankaran, M P Gangadharan, D Sugathan, T V Chandramohan, Chandrasekharan, Radha Raghavan, Maleth Sarala Devi, N D Appachan and Sobhana George. "We have decided and there is no change," one of the MLAs belonging to the Karunakaran camp, told