Nine Congress legislators, owing allegiance to K Karunakaran, on Tuesday resigned from the Kerala [Images] assembly and joined the veteran leader's National Congress (Indira) party.

The MLAs handed over the resignation letters to Speaker Therambil Ramakrishnan.

The MLAs who resigned are P Sankaran, M P Gangadharan, M A Chandrasekharan, N D Appachan, Maleth Sarala Devi, Radha Raghavan, T V Chandramohan, Sobhana George and D Sugathan.

The speaker has accepted the resignations with immediate effect.

A decision to this effect was taken by the MLAs on Monday after a meeting with Karunakaran and NCI president K Muraleedharan.

The development poses no threat to the stability of the Ommen Chandy government in the state.