Opposition Congress today threatened its MLAs would resign enmasse if the Karnataka Assembly Speaker implemented a recommendation by a House panel to suspend 15 Congress and JDS members for their “unruly behaviour” during the trust vote in October last.
“It (suspension of MLAs) is an undemocratic action, if it happened. The rules of the House do not permit suspension of members for an year or six month duration. The Speaker can only suspend members for unruly scenes for a day or for shorter period”, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah (Congress) told reporters here.
“In the event of suspension of the MLAs, the Congress will be with them. We will fight against it. We will not hesitate to resign enmasse”, Mr. Siddaramaiah declared. Congress has 73 members in the 224-member Assembly.
The panel, which looked into the unruly conduct of members during the BJP Government’s trust vote on October 11 last, has recommended suspension of eight MLAs from assembly membership for a year and seven MLAs for six months for varying reasons, including unruly behaviour by disobeying all House rules and procedures and showing disrespect to the Speaker.
Mr. Siddaramiah said Congress would continue its agitation against the Yeddyurappa Government over its alleged land scams and corruption, till it resigned.
The report of the House committee headed by BJP MLA, Appacchu Ranjan, was tabled in the assembly yesterday before the ten-day session was adjourned sine-die cutting short its ten-day session.
It had authorised the Speaker to decide on the suspension of the MLAs named by the committee.
