Rebels disqualified day before Yediyurappa trust vote in K’taka House
Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh disqualified 14 rebel MLAs of the Congress and Janata Dal (S) on Sunday — a day before Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will see trust vote in the House.
Confident about proving the majority, Yediyurappa said the Finance Bill prepared by the previous Congress-JD(S) Government would be tabled by him in the Assembly on Monday without any changes.
The Speaker disqualified 11 Congress MLAs and three JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law till the end of the Assembly term in 2023. The Speaker has already disqualified three more MLAs.
Talking to reporters, Yediyurappa said he would surely prove the majority and then move the Finance Bill for passage. “The Finance Bill (appropriation Bill) needs to be passed “urgently”, as otherwise “we will not be able to draw funds even to pay salaries,” he said.
With the disqualification of 17 rebel MLAs, the effective strength of the 224-member Assembly excluding the Speaker, who has a casting vote in case of a tie, is 207. BSY will require 104 votes to prove the majority.
BJP, along with the support of one Independent, has 106 members, Congress 66 (including nominated), JD(S) 34 and one BSP member, who has been expelled by the party for not voting for the Kumaraswamy Government during the trust vote.
“I have used my judicial conscience... I am 100 per cent hurt,” said the Speaker, when asked about his controversial decision on disqualification being called into question and allegations about his conduct in the entire issue.
Amid reports that the BJP is planning to move a no-confidence against the Speaker if he didn’t quit his post, Ramesh said he is taking the action based on the petitions moved by the Congress and JD(S) to disqualify the rebel MLAs, who had also submitted resignations as Assembly members and were absent during the trust vote sought by the Kumaraswamy headed Government, leading to its downfall.
He said he had rejected the request by the rebel MLAs to give him four weeks more to appear before him on the issues of their resignations and disqualification plea against them.
The Speaker had made it clear when he disqualified three rebel MLAs earlier that a member disqualified under the anti-defection law cannot contest or get elected till the end of the term of the present House, a contention which has been challenged by the BJP, rebel MLAs and several legal experts.
Reading out the names of rebel MLAs, the Speaker said, “They cease to be MLAs with immediate effect till the expiry of the 15th Assembly (in 2023),” adding, “with responsibility and fear I have taken this decision.”
“The way I am being pressurised mentally as Speaker to deal with all these things, I am pushed into a sea of depression,” said an emotional Kumar.
The disqualified MLAs are Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Shivram Hebbar, ST Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil (all Congress). Other party MLAs Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumatalli and Shankar were disqualified on Thursday.
JD(S) members who faced action are Gopalaiah, AH Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda. The BJP criticised the Speaker’s action, calling it “unfair and violative of the law” which, it said, had been taken “yielding to the pressure from a party”.
The Karnataka Congress welcomed the Speaker’s decision to disqualify the rebel MLAs. “The court of the public will also give appropriate punishment to these legislators who have betrayed their parties and people who voted them by joining hands with the BJP to bring down the coalition Government,” the party tweeted. Congress Legislature
Party leader Siddarmaiah, in a tweet, termed the Speaker’s decision as “a victory for democracy”.
“I believe this decision will put an end to the shabby culture of selling oneself by disregarding the public mandate for selfish motives and the greed for power,” he said.
The JD(S) too, in a tweet, welcoming the Speaker’s decision, said, “the Speaker has sent a strong message to those who tried to uproot democracy by disqualifying legislators who fell for allurements of power and money, disregarded public mandate and violated the party whip.” The Speaker justified his pronouncing the order swiftly just a day before the session, saying he had do it in view of the Assembly meeting on Monday, where the “specific agenda” was to take up the motion of confidence and pass the crucial appropriation bill.
Meanwhile, rebel JD(S) MLA AH Vishwanath, who was disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker on Sunday, said the decision was “against the law” and he and other aggrieved legislators would approach the Supreme Court for redressal on Monday.
“The disqualification is against the law...Just under a whip served on them, you cannot force the legislators to come to the House,” Vishwanath told PTI over phone from Pune.
“The Speaker has disqualified 20 members of the legislature on the grounds that they have not attended the House...So against this decision pronounced by the Speaker, we are approaching the Supreme Court on Monday,” the MLA said from an undisclosed location.