BENGALURU: The ugly standoff between the BJP and Congress in the legislative council is far from over. After Council chairman P C Shetty constituted a House committee to look into the December 15 incident, the BJP has expressed unhappiness over it. BJP MLC and former MP Ayanur Manjunath, who was present in the House that day, wrote to Chairman Shetty on Thursday, saying the committee he had constituted should be cancelled.
Manjunath pointed out that he considered it “illegal and biased”, and questioned the appointment of members and const i tut ion of the committee. The committee, comprising Congress MLCs B K Hariprasad and R B Timmapur, JDS MLC Mari Sidde Gowda and BJP MLCs Adagur H Vishwanath and S V Sankhnur, was not proper, he said.
Shetty should have consulted the leader of the BJP in the House Kota Sreenivas Poojary, or Mahantesh Kavatimath, the whip, and sought two names from them, Manjunath added. Quoting House rules, he said that the committee cannot be constituted suo motu, and the consent of the House should be taken first.
Recalling similar scenes in the legislative assembly in October 2010, when MLA Goolihatti Shekar’s shirt was torn, Manjunath said the issue was looked into by a House committee, but the issue was different. While the Vidhana Sabha allows for these rules, the Vidhana Parishad does not. He said the then Council chairman D H Shankaramurthy, when questioned about BJP numbers in the House, had immediately put the matter to vote.
“An issue concerning Council staff can be inquired into by the chairman personally but cannot be referred to a committee,” Manjunath said, and alleged that Shetty had not responded to two of his previous letters, dated December 13 and 17.