Karnataka BJP expels party MLAs Shivaram Hebbar and S T Somashekar for 6 years over ‘indiscipline’

Though both were ministers under the erstwhile BJP rule, Hebbar and Somashekar were on the fringes of the party after the Congress came to power. They were previously in the Congress, and had joined the BJP during the 2019 ‘Operation Lotus’ which saw the defection of 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs.

The two MLAs, especially Somashekar, caused an embarrassment for the state BJP unit by defying party diktats. In the Karnataka Assembly, the Yeshwantpur MLA backed several Bills tabled by the Congress government, which the BJP had opposed. He had also refused to walk out with the BJP legislators during their protests inside the House.

The trouble for the two started in February 2024 when Somashekar cross-voted for Congress candidates during the Rajya Sabha polls, and Hebbar abstained. Their rebellion was an agenda for the state core committee during its meeting held in December 2024, as they had “identified themselves with the Congress”.

Somashekar and Hebbar, who are three-time MLAs, had also backed Congress candidates during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Though this had not ensured victory for Congress candidates in constituencies, which they were part of, it had attracted the wrath of the BJP leadership.

Somashekar was once considered close to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He was associated with Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga leader like himself, since Congress came to power in 2023.

Somashekar had served as the chairman of the Bangalore Development Authority during the year-long Kumaraswamy regime between 2018 and 2019. Post his switch to the BJP, he held the cooperation portfolio in the B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai cabinets.

Hebbar hails from Yellapur in the Uttara Kannada district of the state. He, along with Somashekar, is said to have felt sidelined after the BJP lost the recent Assembly elections, and Yediyurappa’s influence on the state unit of the party waned.

With the two expulsions, the strength of the BJP in the Karnataka Assembly declined to 62. While three MLAs were suspended this year, former CM Basavaraj Bommai had quit as MLA after he won the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.