Friday, January 27 2006 10:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Janata Dal (JD) Secular (S) rebel MLAs group leader H D Kumaraswamy, son of former Prime Minister H D Devegowda, has issued a whip to his legislators to vote against the motion of confidence to be moved by Chief Minister N Dharam Singh in the Karnataka Assembly today (Jan 27,2006).

The JDS headed by Gowda, which is facing a revolt by a majority of its MLAs led by Kumaraswamy, is however unlikely to issue any whip to them to vote for the confidence motion tobe moved by the Chief Minister, a party spokesman said.

"There is no move to issue a whip," JDS spokesman Y S V Datta said, before the assembly session began with the Congress-JDS government facing a serious threat to its survival following withdrawal of support by the rebel MLAs.

Political experts say not issuing the whip means the JDS might not go the whole hog to rescue the 20-month old Dharam Singh Government.

The whip signed by Kumaraswamy, who was elected as the group's legislature party leader after the revolt, asks the MLAs to vote against the confidence motion, the rebel group sources said.

JDS supremo H D Devegowda had yesterday met Kumaraswamy to dissuade him from teaming up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form an alternative government but the splinter group was in no mood to heed to the advice.