Hitting back at rebels, the Janata Dal (Secular) on Monday suspended senior leader Surendra Mohan and revoked the suspension of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and 38 legislators who had aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party to form government in Karnataka early this year.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the National Executive of JD(S) held at the residence of former prime minister and party chief H D Deve Gowda in New Delhi.

The action against Mohan comes in the wake of the rebel faction owing loyalty to M P Veerendrakumar electing him as president after removing Gowda from the top organizational post. Veerendrakumar was suspended from the party last week.

The rebels were opposed to the party aligning with BJP to form a coalition government in Karnataka and had campaigned against the JD(S) candidate in the recent Chamundeswari assembly by-election in Karnataka. Congress candidate and former party leader Siddaramaiah had won the seat.

Sources said Kumaraswamy, who is in the capital, will attend the second session of the meeting as his suspension was revoked.

"The suspended members were humiliated by Congress and equally by us. We were able to realise the circumstances under which the legislators forced to take the decision," Deve Gowda said in his address to the national executive.

Taking a dig at the Election Commission, he said it was unprecedented in the history of India after independence that a chief minister was reprimanded for announcing an old programme much prior to the commencement of model code of conduct.

Referring to his son, he said, "The chief minister of Karnataka announced the programme on October 14 whereas the model code of conduct was enforced on November 7."