PRAMESH S JAIN
In a major development the Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on Sunday disqualified 14 rebel legislators from the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular).With this,17 MLAs who had resigned from the Assembly have been disqualified.All have been disqualified from the Assembly till the end of its term in 2023.
The Speaker’s move came a day before the Bharatiya Janata Party,led by BS Yediyurappa,will have to prove its majority in the House.After the disqualifications, the strength of the House is now 208,and the majority mark is 105 the number the BJP has at present.
Of the 14 MLAs who were disqualified, 11 are from the Congress are,Pratap Gouda Patil, BC Patil,Shivaram Hebbar, ST Somashekar,Byrathi Basavaraj,Anand Singh,R Roshan Baig,K Sudhakar, Muniratna,MTB Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil and three are from the Janata Dal (Secular).The JD(S) legislators are H Vishwanath,Narayan Gowda and Gopalaiah.
Earlier, Kumar had disqualified three rebel MLAs are,R Shankar, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathahalli who had withdrawn support to the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government.
Ramesh Kumar,addressing the press conference on Sunday said the three MLAs’ resignations were not voluntary and genuine.The whole world knows that.I have done my job to the dictates of my conscience.I have used my judicial conscience,said Kumar,who had earlier disqualified three Congress rebel MLAs on Thursday and said he would make the pronouncement of his decision in the remaining cases in a couple of days.The disqualified MLAs cannot fight elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th assembly.The speaker said.The Congress and JDS, whose government collapsed on Tuesday last after a rebellion by a section of their MLAs, had petitioned the Speaker to disqualify their errant members.The disqualified MLAs are,ST Somashekhar of (Yeshwanthpura), BC Patil of (Hirekerur), Shivaram Hebbar of(Yellapur), Prathapgouda Patil of (Maski), K Gopalaiah of (Mahalakshmi Layout), AH Vishwanath of (Hunasuru), Narayana Gowda of (Krishanarajapete),Munirathna Naidu of (RR Nagar), R Roshan Baig of (Shivajinagar), Byrathi Basavaraj of (KR Puram), MTB Nagaraj of (Hoskote), K Sudhakar of (Chikkaballapura),Shrimant Patil of (Kagwad) and Anand Singh of (Vijayanagara).The MLAs who were disqualified on Thursday were Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Mahesh Kumathall (Athani) and R Shankar (Ranebennur). All these disqualifications were made under Section 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Indian Constitution read with Article 19 1 (2).The Speaker even underlined that he was not worried about a no-trust motion that the BJP planned to bring against him in the assembly and said he was even ready to resign on July 23.Let me see when no trust motion is brought against me.I carried a resignation letter on July 23 because I wanted to resign if the matter dragged on that day because I did not want to carry that burden.The Speaker said he is yet to take a call on the fate of BSP MLA N Mahesh after the party sought his expulsion because he abstained from the trust vote on July 23 he added.
“Congress CLP leader Siddaramaiah and Janatadal Secular Welcomes the move”
I welcome the decision of spreaker to disqualify 14 MLAs.This honest decision of speaker will send strong signals for all the representatives in the country who might fall for @BJP4India’s trap @INCKarnataka siddaramaiah tweeted.
I congratulate the speaker on this historic decision.The disqualification of the 14 MLA’s from @INCIndia and @JanataDal_S, upholds the constitutional provisions of the 10th schedule.#SatyamevaJayate.KPCC President,Dinesh Gundu Rao tweeted.
14 Atrupta MLAs of Congress & JDS are disqualified until 2023.This is a bold and great move by the speaker of Karnataka Legislative assembly. This should be a lesson for all greedy & selfish politicians. Acting against the Constitution of India comes with a price. official twitter handle of JDS tweeted.
JD(S),Supremo HD Devegowda breaks down at a press meet and he calls speaker Verdict is a historic verdict I welcome the verdict he even said we will wait and watch what complaints they tell about me and HD Kumaraswamy as they will held a press conference we will wait and watch as the three of the disqualified MLAs have approached already Supreme Court and rest other rebel MLAs will also approach Supreme Court he said.
The rebels are likely to approach the courts to challenge the decision.
Former MLA of RR Nagar constituency Munirathna Naidu who is even a rebel MLA who is in Mumbai after the speaker disqualified them one of the rebel MLA spoke to media persons Statiing that,Our leaders had told us that they would finish us off.They had intimidated us that they would do something like this before.Leaders from both parties had done this.Former Chief minister HD Kumaraswamy was not working properly.They had said that the government would be toppled just after Lok Sabha polls.We waited.But even after that,the prevarication began.It is our freedom to resign.If you are right,why will anyone resign?.Later,he even went to the extent of saying that the Congress leaders were themselves unhappy with former PM HD Deve Gowda and his son HD Kumaraswamy.Our own Congress leaders said that the father and son had been acting too smart.They didn’t hold any meeting which was supposed to be held at least once in a month.We will come to Bengaluru and expose everything.Our law is very robust.This is being done to placate the JD(S).Whatever is happening is a lie. This is being done to ensure HDD and HDK don’t get angry.JD(S) doesn’t trust Congress and vice-versa.Speculations are rife that the rebel MLAs may join the BJP. But the leader went on to say nothing like that was on his mind.I have not spoken anything about joining BJP.We trust in God. Humans have no role to play in our fortunes.We were provoked to take such a decision,he signed off telling this.
“BJP slams Speakers decission on Rebel MLAs disualification. “
Union Minister DV Sadananda Gowda reacts on speaker decission on rebel MLAs he said,Speaker has exercised his powers to disqualify.Disqualified rebel MLAs have the right to approach court and seek justice.We have majority on floor of the house to form the government we have 105 MLAs whereas coalition has only 100 MLAs he said.
Former Chief Minister,Jagadish Shettar said,Move by speaker Ramesh Kumar suspicious,Decision by Speaker to disqualify MLAs is Illegal and unconstitutional the decision by speaker is a black mark on the personality of speaker he said.
Rajya Sabha,MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar has expressed his displeasure in the way the Speaker has disqualified the 17 rebel MLAs and said that the order is patently illegal, malafide and is an overreach of power.BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar has hit out at Ramesh Kumar, the Speaker of Karnataka Assembly for having disqualified all 17 rebel MLAs who had resigned from their parties.He said,Ahead of the floor test of the newly sworn in chief minister of Karnataka Shri BS Yediyurappa on Monday,the Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly Ramesh Kumar has disqualified 14 MLAs of Congress and JDS who had resigned from their membership of the house.Earlier on Thursday,he had disqualified 3 MLAs.He added.These disqualifications are based on the petitions filed by Congress floor leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC Chief Dinesh Gundu Rao and former CM HD Kumaraswamy seeking disqualification of rebel MLAs.The MP also expressed his displeasure over politicising the entire issue.Our constitution envisages that those in constitutional positions must exercise their power responsibly.But Ramesh Kumar has spotlighted the risks of having politically motivated persons in constitutional positions who don’t hesitate flouting laws and constitution for crooked politics.The MP also termed the disqualifications.malafide.
The 14-month-old ruling coalition lost the trust vote last Tuesday after 99 MLAs voted in favour of it and 105 legislators went against it.The floor test was necessitated by the resignations of the MLAs.The coalition government had come to power in May 2018 and the next election is due in 2023.In May 2018,Karnataka ended up with a fractured mandate after the Assembly elections.The BJP emerged as the largest party with 105 seats, but was eight short of the majority mark of 113.
Though the Congress-JD(S) was defeated 99-105 in the confidence motion, the BJP will now have the added pressure to ensure victories in the vacant constituencies to remain in power for the remainder of the term.
Most of the rebels said that they had only resigned as legislators but not as members of their respective parties. The rebels are likely to move Supreme Court to challenge the speaker’s ruling.
The coalition has accused the BJP of engineering the resignations to destabilise non-BJP governments across the country. Most of the rebels were flown away from Bengaluru in special flights and lodged in a plush Mumbai hotel.Several BJP leaders were seen with the rebels, raising suspicions if the saffron outfit was indeed behind the crisis.The BJP has feigned innocence in the entire episode stating that the coalition collapsed due to the discord between the traditional rivals.
These means in total 17 MLAs of the Karnataka Assembly have been disqualified bringing the strength of the House to 207 and the magic number reduced to 104.The BJP has 105 MLAs of their own and independent MLA H Nagesh is likely to support them for BS Yediyurappa’s floor test on Monday.
In the recent case of 18 AIADMK MLAs, who were disqualified in September 2017, they were allowed by the apex court and the Election Commission to contest the bye-elections held six months later.With this karnataka stands on second number of MLAs getting disqualified.
Meanwhile,Section 144 will remain imposed near the Vidhana Soudha in a radius of 2kms from 6 AM on Monday till midnight on 30 July in view of Assembly session and trust vote to take place so for the precautionary measures Section 144 has been imposed said Bengaluru City Police Commissioner,Alok Kumar.
