Ruling party leaders say 15 more legislators from opposition parties are likely to follow suit; Yeddyurappa hints at imminent ministerial expansion.
The ongoing political crisis has forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to backtrack on its decision not to wean away legislators from the opposition parties. The second edition of the operation to snare legislators from Opposition camps has begun with the resignation of the Janata Dal(Secular) rebel MLA from Channapatna, MC Ashwath.
Ashwath, who was missing for five days, surfaced in the state capital and submitted his resignation to assembly speaker KG Bopaiah. On Friday, the speaker announced that he was accepting the resignation.
The Janata Dal (Secular) had served a notice to Ashwath asking him to show cause why the party should not seek his disqualification as he had violated a party whip by abstaining from participating in Thursday’s trust vote in the assembly.
By resigning, Ashwath has not only pre-empted his disqualification but also escaped the consequent ban on him becoming ineligible to contest any election for the next six years.
He denied the JD(S) allegation that the BJP had kidnapped him. He said that he had gone out of Karnataka to keep away from the political turmoil in the state. The legislator’s disappearance had ignited protests in Channapatna and threats to his life from JD(S) workers, forcing him to shift his family to Mysore.
After getting elected as the single largest party in 2008 and forming government with support from independents, the BJP had done a similar thing by getting eight opposition legislators resign and contest afresh as its candidates. Seven of them won in the ensuing bypolls. With the survival of the government depending on the outcome of the case on disqualification of 16 MLAs in the Karnataka high court, the BJP has re-launched the operation to snare Opposition MLAs.
According to party sources, baits are being dangled before at least 15 MLAs of the Congress and JD(S). “Don’t be surprised if more Opposition MLAs follow in Ashwath’s footsteps. We too have our strategies to neutralise the destabilisation efforts of the Opposition. Independent MLA Varthur Prakash’s change of loyalty in support of the BJP is just a sample of things to come,” a senior BJP functionary told DNA.
The BJP has, in the meantime, served notice on its MLA from Lingsugur, Manappa Vajjal, seeking an explanation as to why disqualification proceedings should not be initiated against him as he had abstained from voting during the trust vote in violation of the party whip.
The Congress, however, has hit back at the ruling BJP by alleging that the BS Yeddyurappa government had informed police about the disqualification of 16 MLAs, even before the speaker issued orders to this effect.
At a meeting of top police officials held at his home office ‘Krishna’ on October 10, Yeddyurappa had directed police to stop disqualified MLAs at the outer gate of Vidhana Soudha, Congress leader VS Ugrappa said in Bangalore. The police officials were also told to ensure that the rebel MLAs did not gain entry into Assembly hall, he added.
Ugrappa also released copies of a seven-page report submitted to DGP Ajai Kumar Singh by Bangalore police commissioner Shankar Bidari on the October 11 unruly incidents in the assembly. The contents demonstrated clearly that the government was aware of the speaker’s decision much before it was pronounced, he said.
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