Karnataka speaker disqualifies three MLAs

Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar yesterday disqualified two rebel Congress legislators and an Independent lawmaker with immediate effect.The Congress rebels are Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak) and Mahesh Kumatahalli (Athani)  while the Independent is R Shankar (Ranebennur).“The three legislators have been disqualified under the Anti-Defection Law (10th Schedule of the Constitution) on the recommendation of their party,” Ramesh Kumar told reporters here.Though Shankar was elected in the May 2018 Assembly elections as a KPJP candidate, the Speaker said he had merged the regional outfit with the Congress in June as he was the only its elected member, the Speaker said.“Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah informed me in June that Shankar had merged his KPJP with the Congress after he was made minister in the H D Kumaraswamy coalition government,” said Kumar.Earlier, a BJP official said Karnataka may have a spell of President’s rule till Speaker Kumar decides on the resignations of the 15 rebel legislators of the Congress and JD-S, as the BJP is not in a hurry to stake claim to form a government amid uncertainty.“If the Speaker takes longer time to accept or reject the resignations of the rebels, the governor (Vajubhai Vala) may recommend President’s rule in the state, as we would not like to stake claim to power in such a situation,” state BJP spokesperson G Madhusudan said.The party is also unclear about the Speaker’s decision on applying the disqualification clause on the rebel legislators for defying their respective party whips as recommended by the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).Although the Supreme Court has said in its July 17 order that the Speaker was free to decide on the rebels’ resignations as per the anti-defection law, the rebels continued to abstain from the Assembly as the three-judge bench also said they could not be compelled to attend the House while their resignations were pending before the Speaker after they re-submitted these on July 11.The three-judge bench is headed by chief justice Ranjan Gogoi, justice Deepak Gupta and justice Aniruddha Bose.After 10 rebels petitioned the top court on July 10 for its directive to the Speaker to accept their resignations forthwith, the remaining five rebels impleaded themselves through a joint petition on July 13 with the same plea.In case the Speaker takes more time to decide on their resignations, the rebels are likely to approach the apex court again for its intervention as their plea before the bench was for directing the Speaker to accept the resignation letters forthwith since the ones re-submitted on July 11 were in the prescribed order.“Till the resignations are accepted, the strength of the Assembly will remain 225, including one nominated, as the rebels are still members, with 113 as the halfway mark for a simple majority,” the spokesperson said.