Protesting Congress MLAs to stay put in Karnataka Assembly at the weekend

Along with BJP leaders, JD(S) MLA HD Revanna also seeks the suspension of Congress members protesting against KS Eshwarappa’s saffron flag remark.

Congress MLAs who staged overnight protest inside Vidhana Soudha. On Friday morning they were seen sitting on the steps of the powerhouse reading newspapers | Express photo

The Karnataka Assembly was adjourned till Monday after Congress leaders continued to demand minister’s resignation over his statement that the saffron flag will some day replace the tricolour as the national flag. They said they will continue the protest by staying put in the House till it reconvenes.

The proceedings began around 11pm, when the Assembly paid tribute to former MLA GV Mantur, who died at the age of 92 in Bagalkote on Thursday. As the question hour began, the Opposition stormed into the Well shouting slogans against the rural development minister.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that MLAs wanted to discuss people’s issues but the Congress was unnecessarily creating chaos in the House. “There are a lot of public issues that need to be addressed, and there is confusion about uniforms in schools and colleges which we wanted to speak about. But the Congress is not letting it happen. This is a political stunt. It is not going to fetch them anything,” he said.

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister JC Madhuswamy expressed his displeasure over the disruption of the proceedings and asked Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri to take note of it. “It was an insult to the speaker of the House. If they want to protest, they can do it outside but should disrespect the House,” he said.

JD(S) MLA HD Revanna said he was unable to raise questions of public interest and asked the speaker to suspend the MLAs.

Senior Congress MLA and former speaker KR Ramesh Kumar suggested the speaker suspend his party’s MLAs now that they had decided to stay put in the Assembly.

The speaker adjourned the proceedings till Monday morning.

Eshwarappa had said the bhagwa dhwaj (saffron flag) might become the national flag some time in the future, adding that since the tricolour was the national flag at present, everyone should respect it.

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