The disqualification under the tenth schedule of the Constitution means the MLAs will be stripped of their status as legislators and not be able to contest an election during the remaining 46-month term of the current Assembly, the Speaker said. The MLAs have the option of legally challenging the decision.
Welcoming the Speaker’s decision, former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah called it a “real victory for democracy.” “The people’s court will also punish these lawmakers for betraying their parties and their people by joining hands with the BJP to bring down the alliance government,” the state unit of Congress said in a tweet.
The political crisis in Karnataka erupted after 16 MLAs Congress-JD(S) tendered their resignations to the Speaker. The mass resignations led to the collapse of 14 months-old Kumaraswamy-led government. Many of the MLAs were allegedly convinced to resign by BJP leaders with the assurance that they would not face disqualification. The BJP had staked claim to power after the ruling Congress-JDS coalition government failed the trust vote last week.
Rebel JD(S) MLA A H Vishwanath, who was disqualified by the Karnataka Speaker today, said the decision was "against the law" and he and other aggrieved legislators would approach the Supreme Court for redressal on Monday. "The disqualification is against the law...just under a whip served on them, you cannot force the legislators to come to the House," Vishwanath told PTI. "The speaker has disqualified 20 members of the legislature on the grounds that they have not attended the House...so against this decision pronounced by the Speaker, we are approaching the Supreme Court on Monday," the MLA added.
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Meanwhile, commenting on the current political situation in Madhya Pradesh, BJP's national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya said a "new mission" will be launched after the cabinet formation in Karnataka. "After the formation of the cabinet in Karnataka, a new mission will be started. It is not our wish to make a government fall but Congress MLAs have uncertainty in themselves,” he told reporters when questioned about the Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh, PTI reported.
The full timeline of events that led to 17 MLAs being disqualified from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly after the collapse of the H D Kumaraswamy-led JD(S)-Congress coalition government and BJP's B S Yediyurappa taking over as the 25th Chief Minister of the state.
July 28 – Speaker disqualifies 14 MLAs – 11 Cong, 3 JD(S)
July 26 – Yediyurappa meets Guv at morning; takes oath as CM by evening
July 25 – BJP delegation reaches Delhi to meet top brass; one rebel MLA returns to Bengaluru; 3 MLAs disqualified
July 24 – BJP legislators meet under Yeddyurappa’s leadership
July 23: Kumaraswamy fails to prove majority, Cong-JD(S) government collapses
Read in detail
With today's disqualifications, the strength of the House is reduced to 208, and the majority mark slides to 105. The BJP is now at 105 plus one Independent – H Nagesh - putting Yediyurappa on safe ground, for now. Newly sworn-in Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa Sunday said that he is 100 per cent sure he will prove his majority. “On Monday hundred per cent I will prove the majority,” he told reporters in Bengaluru. He added that after proving his majority in the Assembly, his government will first take up the Finance Bill. Read more
JD(S) supremo and former Prime Minister H D Devegowda breaks down during a press meet held in Bengaluru. He was seen wiping tears as he said that he regrets him sidelining those who worked for the party. "I wasn't able to give them the respect and recognition they deserved," he said.
A four-time MLA and a former MP, Vishwanath belongs to the backward class Kuruba community. He was the state president of the JDS till a few days before his move to resign from the Assembly. Vishwanath earlier resigned as state party president, citing the party’s defeat in Lok Sabha polls, the failure of the coalition and the Congress’s “indifference”. He has been engaged in a tussle with fellow Kuruba leader Siddaramaiah ever since he helped the latter join the Congress around 12 years ago. Soon, Siddaramaiah assumed the mantle of the foremost leader of the Kuruba community and Vishwanath was sidelined.
He joined the JDS in 2017 and was elected to the Assembly in 2018. In recent months, Vishwanath had grown disgruntled with the Vokkaliga-dominated section of the JDS over the way he was ignored in decision-making even in his own constituency. Vishwanath was seen with senior BJP leaders in Karnataka and Delhi ahead of his resignation. Although he was expected to quit, the veteran was not expected to be part of a group trying to topple the government. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Vishwanath, who is also a writer, declared wealth to the tune of Rs 3 crore. Ahead of the 2018 state polls, he declared the same amount of wealth.
As 17 MLAs have been disqualified in the last 3 days from the Karnataka Legislative Asssembly, it can be noted that the list also includes four legislators from the state capital Bengaluru - S T Someshekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, N Munirathna, and K Gopalaiah.
S T Somashekhar, 61
Congress, Yeshwanthpura, Bengaluru
The two-term MLA is from the dominant Vokkaliga community in south Karnataka and a follower of Siddaramaiah. He has nursed ambitions of becoming a minister since 2013 when Siddaramaiah was chief minister. He was made the chairman of the Bangalore Development Authority through his intervention. Somashekhar, who has interests in real estate, construction, civil contracts, and travel business, is a close associate of two other Congress MLAs from north Bangalore, Byrathi Basavaraj and N Munirathna.
Byrathi Basavaraj, 54
Congress, K R Pura, Bengaluru
A close associate of Siddaramaiah, the Congress MLA is a wealthy landholder from north Bengaluru involved in real estate business. Basavaraj and his brother Byrathi Suresh, also a Congress MLA, are considered to be key financial backers of Siddaramaiah. The brothers belong to the OBC Kuruba community to which Siddaramaiah belongs. They have a reputation of controlling a lot of land deals in north Bangalore.
N Munirathna, 55
Congress, RR Nagar, Bengaluru
Munirathna is a former contractor-turned-councillor-turned-legislator. The two-time MLA is now also a film producer. He has links with contractors in Bengaluru city who control various city projects and is closely associated with Congress leaders like Ramalinga Reddy and Shivakumar. He is also associated with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and was the producer of a recent film featuring the chief minister’s actor son Nikhil Kumaraswamy.
K Gopalaiah, 58
JDS, Mahalakshmi Layout, Bengaluru
Another north Bengaluru MLA with connections to land deals and contracts in the city corporation, Gopalaiah is a two-term MLA. He was suspended by the JDS in 2017 after he cross-voted with a few JDS rebels during a Rajya Sabha election.
Anand Singh, the first MLA to tender resignation on July 1, is among the 17 MLAs who have been disqualified by Karnataka Speaker Ramesh Kumar. He is a three-time MLA from Ballari region, Singh hopped from the BJP to the Congress ahead of the 2018 assembly elections. A Rajput and a businessman with interests in iron ore mining, he was arrested by the CBI in 2013 for alleged involvement in an illegal mining racket allegedly operated by former BJP minister G Janardhan Reddy. He is still under trial.
Despite lacking a caste base in Ballari, Singh has won elections through popularity gained through philanthropic work.
Soon after the decision to disqualify 14 more MLAs was announced on Sunday, Karnataka Congress tweeted, "We welcome the verdict. The people's court will also punish these lawmakers for betraying their parties and their people by joining hands with the BJP to bring down the alliance government."
However, the BJP is yet to react to the same.
"I congratulate the speaker on this historic decision. The disqualification of the 14 MLAs from ?Congress and JD(S)? upholds the constitutional provisions of the 10th schedule, " Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao said.
R Roshan Baig, an eight-time MLA has been a minister on six occasions. He has served as home minister in the past and was the minister for urban development in the previous Siddaramaiah-led Congress government. Baig has been upset after being denied a position in the coalition ministry and has blamed Siddaramaiah for this.
He was suspended by the Congress after the Lok Sabha polls for blaming Congress leaders, including Siddaramaiah, for the party’s defeat. Baig was tipped to join the BJP when he was linked to the multi-crore ponzi scheme scam propagated by the IMA Group and its founder Mansoor Khan. In a video message before he fled the country, Khan alleged that he suffered losses because Baig borrowed over Rs 400 crore and did not return it. An SIT probing the matter has called Baig for questioning on July 11. The Congress leader had declared wealth to the tune of Rs 19 crore in 2013 and Rs 36 crore in 2018.
Earlier last week, on June 25, the Speaker had three rebels Congress MLAs under the anti-defection law for anti-party activities, including association with the BJP to bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. With 14 MLAs -11 from Congress and 3 from JD(S) -disqualified today, the total number of MLAs disqualified from Vidhana Soudha has raised to 17.