BENGALURU: Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar stopped short of creating a new record for disqualifying the MLAs on Sunday. Working overtime to dispose of the pending resignations and disqualification petitions against rebel MLAs of the JDS-Congress coalition, the Speaker announced the disqualifications of 14 more MLAs, taking the total to 17.
The Speaker’s ruling to disqualify the MLAs — 11 from the Congress and three from JDS — came a day before Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is set to seek a trust vote in the legislative assembly. Any hopes that the rebel MLAs may have had of their petitions being buried quietly with the election of a new Speaker under the BJP government, came crashing down on Sunday.
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“I had 13 more resignations and 14 disqualification petitions pending before me, and I have considered all of them. I had asked the members who resigned, to appear before me to convince me that their resignations were voluntary and genuine. They failed to do so,” said Ramesh Kumar.
Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Anand Singh, Muniratna, S T Somashekar, Byrathi Basavaraj, Shivaram Hebbar, Shrimanth Patil, M T B Nagaraj, Dr K Sudhakar and Roshan Baig of the Congress, and H Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayanagowda of JDS were disqualified under 2(1)(a) of the Anti-Defection Law, as prescribed under Schedule X of the Constitution, Ramesh Kumar said.
With last week’s disqualification of three MLAs — Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathalli and R Shankar — the Assembly’s strength now stands at 208.
The disqualification brings down the simple majority in the Assembly to 105 — exactly the number of MLAs the BJP has. Disqualification will also mean that the MLAs cannot contest elections and become part of the existing 15th legislative assembly. This will effectively mean that the BJP need not accommodate them either in the party or the government.
MONDAY’S special sitting of the legislative assembly for Yeddyurappa to seek a vote of confidence and passage of the Finance Bill is likely to be Ramesh Kumar’s last sitting as Speaker. The veteran politician had dropped hints of his exit when he had announced the first round of disqualifications. The time frame within which the petitions have been disposed of, especially when Kumar himself had insisted on multiple occasions that he was in no hurry to give judgments, seems to be his parting shot before he makes his way out as Speaker.
“It is impossible for this to be a drama or manipulation. Neither am I under any pressure. I have been consistently behaving gentlemanly,” Ramesh Kumar said, when asked about the need to announce his judgment on a Sunday -- a day when all government offices are closed.
“I welcome the decision of the Speaker 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,” Siddaramaiah, leader of the Congress Legislature Party, tweeted.For the Congress, the Speaker’s order has farreaching consequences. Given the precarious scenario that the party is facing in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Congress hopes that Ramesh Kumar’s ruling is a deterrent to any attempts to destabilise governments.
The disqualified Congress MLAs are: Pratapgouda Patil, BC Patil, Anand Singh, Muniratna, ST Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Shivaram Hebbar, Shrimanth Patil, MTB Nagaraj, Sudhakar and Roshan Baig.
The disqualified JDS MLAs are: H Vishwanath, Gopalaiah and Narayana Gowda.
The three MLAs disqualified earlier are: Ramesh L Jarkiholi, Mahesh Kumathalli and Independent MLA R Shankar.
Kumar had said that the three MLAs--R Shankar (Ranibennur), Ramesh Jharkiholi (Gokak) and Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani)--have incurred disqualification under the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) and the disqualification would last till the end of the term of the Assembly May 23, 2023.
They cannot contest the by-election too, he added.
(With inputs from Online desk)