The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will not allow Minister for Housing, Wakf and Minority Welfare B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan to take part in the forthcoming Belagavi legislature session for his comments denigrating the post of the Assembly Speaker, BJP State president B.Y. Vijayendra said in Mangaluru on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters, Mr. Vijayendra said the Minister, during his speech in an election campaign in Telangana, brought a communal angle to the selection of U.T. Khader as the Speaker. “This is really unfortunate. Our heads should hang in shame for the way the Minister has degraded the post of the Speaker”.
Criticising Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar for being silent on Mr. Khan’s statement, Mr. Vijayendra said the Congress should ask him to resign from the Cabinet for degrading the Constitutional post.
“The BJP will not sit silent on this issue. We will not allow him (Mr. Khan) to take part in the Belgavi session,” he said.
The party will fight it out in the two Houses and also hold demonstrations outside demanding action against the Minister, he said.
The BJP, Mr. Vijayendra said, is not opposed to the release of the caste survey or the Socio-Economic and Education Survey report of the Karnataka State Commission for Backward Classes.
“We are opposed to the way the State government is politicising the release of the survey findings, a few days before the Lok Sabha elections. We will not allow this,” he said.
Henceforth, none from the BJP will leave and join other parties. “I am not going into the past. But from now on none will leave the party. Those who have gone out of the party will return,” he said.
When it was pointed out that Laxman Savadi said that he would not return to the BJP, Mr. Vijayendra said: “When he has not been invited to return, there is no question of taking his statement seriously”.
Published - November 22, 2023 10:59 pm IST
