BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot on Sunday, just hours after Speaker UT Khader formally revoked the suspension of 18 BJP MLAs.
The decision, insiders say, wasn’t so much driven by magnanimity of the ruling Congress, but by subtle and consistent pressure from the Raj Bhavan.
Sources confirmed that it was Gehlot who played the important role in ensuring that the decision was rolled back. He reportedly termed the six-month suspension “undemocratic” and “unconstitutional”.
He kept the pressure up on the Congress government ahead of the upcoming Assembly session.
“We knew this was coming four days ago,” a senior BJP leader said. The groundwork had been done weeks earlier when BJP submitted a memorandum to Gehlot on April 28.
Raj Bhavan sources said the governor did not mince his words in his letters to Siddaramaiah and Khader. He is said to have urged them to immediately reevaluate the suspension order, calling it a threat to the integrity of democratic institutions.
The 18 MLAs were suspended on March 21, with the punishment originally set to run until September 21. But with the looming risk of a public rebuke by the Governor, the Speaker backed down, the sources said.
A high-level meeting on Sunday, attended by Khader, Siddaramaiah, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, Law Minister HK Patil, and Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, formally sealed the revocation.
Sources confirmed that the meeting had been planned four days in advance.
“Congress knew they had no legal or moral ground left. Revoking the suspension before the session begins was their only way out to avoid embarrassment,” a BJP leader said.
Ashoka said, “We thank Khader for revoking the unconstitutional suspension. This is not just a win for BJP, it is a win for democratic values.”
There is speculation that a senior Congress leader had pushed for the suspension, reportedly to silence BJP’s aggressive floor strategy. That move was okayed by the state leadership in March, but boomeranged.