BENGALURU: With Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy declaring that he is willing to face a vote of confidence which may happen sometime next week, the Congress on Saturday got busy wooing back its rebel lawmakers. The party even managed to convince one of them, while working out strategies to bring back the others to save the 13 month-old coalition government.

Racing against time to save the government, the coalition's troubleshooter and Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, along with Deputy Chief Minister G Parameswara, met rebel Congress MLA M T B Nagaraj in the wee hours on Saturday and held marathon meetings to convince him to withdraw his resignation.

Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah too held a separate meeting with Nagaraj. Late in the evening, the Hosakote MLA announced that he will withdraw his resignation. The party is hopeful that dissident leaders Ramalinga Reddy and Roshan Baig will also follow suit.

To ensure that numbers are on its side, Congress has issued whip to all its MLAs and the rebels have been warned of disqualification. Party leaders are confident that they can surpass the half-way mark if the Supreme Court takes some more time to decide on the petition of the rebels as the Speaker has raised larger Constitutional issues and appraised the court of the pending disqualification petitions against three MLAs, including Ramesh Jarkiholi.