Karnataka's 17 disqualified MLAs' on the crossroads now!

Thanks to Yesterday's announcement of bye-elections to the 15 out of the 17 Assembly constituencies in the state, all those former legislators who quit their memberships' to enable the saffron party to come to power are now literally on the crossroads!

Their plea for quashing the state Assembly Speaker's ruling disqualifying them from their memberships and barring them to recontest before the end of the present Assembly's tenure till 2022 is pending before the apex court.The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear their petition tomorrow after several adjournments. But the calendar of events for the bye-elections has been declared and as per the Speaker's ruling, they have no eligibility to contest the ensuing by-elections.

14 Indian National Congress(INC) and three Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S) Members of Legislative Assembly who quit their positions have been undergoing a harrowing time ever since they resigned.All these legislators submitted their resignations to KR Rameshkumar, then Assembly Speaker and went into hiding at a five-star luxury hotel in Mumbai. All of them were lifted in a chartered flight.

DK Shivakumar, then Power Minister in the alliance parties government and Man Friday of the Congress party went to the same hotel to persuade the disgruntled legislators back to the party fold. However, the hotel staff denied entry to him in spite of the latter having booked a suite there.He resisted against the hotel's decision and staged a protest sitting before the hotel, accompanied by the local Congress cadres. He even had his breakfast and lunch sitting before the hotel without having a bath also.

As the day developed the Mumbai police packed him to the airport and ensured that the neighbouring state Minister returned to Bengaluru without accomplishing the task assigned to him.

While all such attempts to get in touch with the dissident MLAs' failed miserably, the JDS-Congres strategy managers devised a counter-strategy.

When all the 17 MLAs' were making a hue and cry on videos, urging the Assembly Speaker to accept their resignations HD Kumaraswamy, then Chief Minister and Siddaramaiah, Congress legislature party leader succeeded in getting all the rebels disqualified! The moot question of the Assembly Speaker not taking a call on the resignations submitted remained inconsequential as he preferred to act on the letters of JDS-Congress legislature party leaders recommendation of disqualifying all of them.

BS Yediyurappa, Chief Minister rushed to the nation's capital and met Amith Shah, BJP national president and Home Minister today apprising him of the adverse developments due to the sudden announcement of the by-polls before a judgement of the apex court's decision.

All the rebel legislators are publicly expressing their displeasure over the by-polls much before the apex court's decision and are airing their views in anger that the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leaders have let them down!

In the event of no decision coming out before the date of filing of nominations ends, they are left with no other option rather than proposing their kith and kin to contest on their behalf.

In that way, the state BJP leadership is under undue pressure to resolve amicably to the advantage of the disqualified MLAs' as the party is under an inevitable position of managing to win at least in six seats. Whether the ruling party succeeds in its mission needs to be watched and viewed now.

-Manohar Yadavatti

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