Karnataka Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar on July 25 disqualified three rebel MLAs on the grounds that the resignations were not voluntary.
The three MLAs are R Shankar, an Independent from Ranebennur constituency, Ramesh Jarakiholi from Gokak and Mahesh Kumathalli from Athani. They have been disqualified for the rest of the term, i.e. till May 23, 2023 effective from today.
This also means that they will not be able to contest the elections until the current legislative assembly is dissolved.
Disqualifying the MLAs, Speaker Ramesh Kumar said, “I was compelled to arrive at the conclusion that they (the resignations) were not voluntary, based on the documents that were submitted.” According to him, these resignations were a "serious threat to the internal democracy of a political party" and hence were disqualified.
The trio was a part of the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs, who had tendered their resignation earlier this month.
While Jarakiholi and Kumathalli had resigned, Shankar did not tender his resignation. His disqualification was based on the petition submitted by Congress leader and former chief minister Siddharamaiah to the Speaker.
Shankar, who had earlier merged with the Congress, had extended support to the BJP despite still being a part of the Grand Old Party.
As far as the other 14 are concerned, Speaker Kumar said, “I have resignations and disqualification petitions from respective parties with me. I’m going through the documents and will get back in the next couple of days.”
This comes two days after the Congress-JD(S) coalition lost the trust vote 99-105 and the government collapsed in the state. The absence of the 17 rebel MLAs were a key to the fall of the government.
It is yet to be seen how it will fare for the rest of the rebel MLAs, some of whom are reportedly still holed by in Mumbai. These rebel MLAs had tendered their resignation between July 6 and July 10, 2019. They had also filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the Speaker for delaying the decision on their resignation.
By the current count, even if all the 17 MLAs are disqualified, the BJP can still comfortably form the government in the state, with the majority of 105. The Karnataka Legislative Assembly has 224 seats (minus the Speaker); in the case all 17 MLAs are disqualified, the seat count comes down to 207, bringing the halfway mark to 104.
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