K.R. Ramesh Kumar, the Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly, on the 28th of July, disqualified 14 rebel Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs.)
Mr. Kumar disqualified the MLAs under the Anti Defection Law, till 2023, the end of the current Assembly term. As per the Anti Defection Law, the MLAs cannot contest any election till the end of the term of the 15th Assembly.
Apart from the 14 MLAs, the Speaker, on the 26th of July, disqualified three MLAs of the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD[S.])
The decision of Ramesh Kumar came when B.S. Yediyurappa announced he will conduct a trust vote on the 29th of July, to prove his majority in the State.
After the disqualification of the MLAs, the no confidence motion is said to be easy for the BJP to win, as the majority of the 224 MLAs is reduced to 207.
To mark the majority in the State, the BJP needs to gain the vote of 104 members. The BJP has a total of 105 MLAs in favour.
On the other hand, the alliance of the Indian National Congress (INC) and the JD[S] has a total of 66 and 34 MLAs respectively.
Ramesh Kumar said the action was taken according to the resignations submitted and the petition filed against the MLAs by the INC.
Although the MLAs requested Kumar to give them 4 weeks and allow them to meet him, he rejected their requests and took the necessary action against them.
Ramesh Kumar said, “The way I am being pressurised mentally as Speaker to deal with all these things, I am pushed into a sea of depression.”
The MLAs who were disqualified are Pratap Gowda Patil, B.C. Patil, Shivram Hebbar, S.T. Somashekar, Byrati Basavaraj, Anand Singh, Roshan Baig, Munirathna, K. Sudhakar, M.T.B. Nagaraj and Shrimant Patil of the INC.
The JD(S) members who faced Kumar’s action are Gopalaiah, A.H. Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda. The BJP criticised Ramesh Kumar and deemed his action “unfair and (a) violation of the law.”
Govind Karjol, a senior leader of the BJP, said, “It is a motivated and defective order.”
On the other hand, the INC leaders called the decision the “victory of democracy” and tweeted about it.
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 (@siddaramaiah) July 28, 2019
The no confidence motion by B.S. Yediyurappa will begin at 10:30 A.M., on the 29th of July, at Vidhana Soudha, Karnataka.
Stay tuned for further updates.
