As the political crisis deepened in Karnataka, 12 rebel Congress MLAs skipped the party’s legislature meeting at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

“None of the rebel legislators turned up for the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting despite giving them a notice on July 7 to be present at it in the Vidhan Soudha (State Secretariat),” party spokesman Ravi Gowda told IANS.

Of the party’s 78 legislators, Gowda said about 60 of them were at the meeting while five to six had informed the CLP leader (Siddaramaiah) in advance of their inability to attend.

The rebel lawmakers who resigned and skipped the meeting are Ramalinga Reddy, ST Somashekar, Bayrati Basavaraj, Munirathna, Pratapgauda Patil, BC Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Shivram Hebbar, Mahesh Kumatahalli, SN Subba Reddy and Anand Singh.

The other absent legislators were Roshan Baig, K Sudhakar, Housing Minister MTB Nagaraj and BK Sangameshwar.

The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah had earlier urged the rebels to attend the CLP meeting conveyed during the day ahead of the 10-day monsoon session of the state legislature from Friday.

Briefing the media after the CLP meeting, Siddaramaiah alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were directly involved in destabilising the Karnataka coalition government.

He further said the state Congress was seeking disqualification of 11 rebel members while urging them to come back and withdraw their resignation.

“This government is elected according to the provisions of the Constitution. Some of our MLAs fell into BJP’s trap. The law clearly says that whoever resigns from any political party, after being elected on that party’s symbol, will be disqualified as it amounts to defection. Once disqualified, the person is not eligible to hold any office,” he told reporters.

Siddaramaiah further claimed that the BJP was offering money, positions and ministership to woo the alliance leaders.

In a bid to save the 13-month-old coalition government, all 30 Karnataka ministers of the alliance, including the deputy chief minister, have put in their papers to allow a Cabinet reshuffle.

Earlier, 21 ministers of Congress had quit the cabinet.

A total of 15 MLAs have resigned from the ruling alliance – 10 from Congress and three from JD (S) by Saturday and two more, including one Independent on Monday.

13 of the rebel MLAs who were staying at a hotel in Mumbai have been shifted to an “undisclosed” location in the city.

The exit of Independent MLAs H Nagesh and R Shankar, inducted into the Cabinet on June 14 to bolster numbers, reduced the coalition’s strength to 104 after 13 MLAs — 10 Congress and 3 JD(S) — resigned Saturday. The coalition now comprises 69 Congress MLAs, 34 JD(S) and one BSP MLA compared to the BJP’s 107 (105 plus two Independents) in the 224-member House.

Congress leader DK Shivakumar said that the BJP at the Centre has declined knowing about the political situation in Karnataka.

“BS Yeddyurappa is also saying the same, but he is sending his PA to pick up all our Ministers,” he claimed.