Bengaluru
The Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) today welcomed Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar’s decision to disqualify 14 more rebel MLAs.
“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,” Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah tweeted.
Echoing similar sentiments, Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao also hailed the Speaker’s “historic” decision.
“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,” Rao tweeted.
A tweet from the official handle of JD(S) said, “Speaker Ramesh Kumar has given a tough message to those who are going to destabilise democracy by disqualifying lawmakers who have violated the party whip by sacrificing the mandate for money and power. Our party welcomes the verdict.”
A day ahead of the trust vote to be tabled by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa in the state Assembly, Kumar disqualified the 14 rebel lawmakers with immediate effect.
This is in addition to the three dissident MLAs he had disqualified on July 25.
Out of the 14 rebel MLAs, 11 of them are from Congress. The disqualified legislators include — Pratap Gowda Patil, BC Patil, Shivanand Hebbar, ST Somashekar, Shrimant Patil, BA Basavaraja, Anand Singh, R Roshan Baig, Muniratna, K Sudhakar and MTB Nagaraj.
The three MLAs disqualified are from JD(S) which include — AH Vishwanath, Narayan Gowda and Gopalaiah.
With the significant development, a total of 17 rebel MLAs from both parties have been disqualified by the Speaker. All the disqualified MLAs cannot contest elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly.
“Where have we reached? The way I am being pressurised to deal with the situation being a Speaker… All these things have pushed me into a sea of depression,” Kumar told reporters here before announcing his decision.