Expressing optimism that the Supreme Court will give a verdict in their favour, the MLAs disqualified by former Speaker Ramesh Kumar in July this year will jointly decide their next course of action after the apex court ruling.
Speaking to reporters in Mysuru on Monday, one of the disqualified MLAs, B.C. Patil, said all 17 former legislators who resigned in protest against the functioning of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government were united. “All of us will be together. We will take a joint decision on our future course of action,” Mr. Patil said.
The former MLAs have filed a petition in the Supreme Court questioning their disqualification by the former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar. Terming Mr. Kumar’s decision “unconstitutional”, Mr. Patil said he had acted out of “prejudice” and denied them natural justice by failing to issue the mandatory seven-day notice before disqualification.
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Mr. Patil added that the Election Commission of India had also taken a position before the Supreme Court that the former Speaker’s order disqualifying them should not deprive the leaders of a chance to contest in byelections.
Though it is widely presumed that all the former MLAs will contest as BJP candidates in the bypolls, now scheduled to be held on December 5 in 15 constituencies, Mr. Patil said a final decision on which party to join would be taken after all of the leaders meet following the Supreme Court ruling.
Mr. Patil said their decision would also depend on the opinion of the people of their constituencies.
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He confirmed that all the former MLAs were keen to return to the poll fray. But he clarified that they would not return to their parent parties, be it the Congress or the JD(S). Of the 17 former MLAs, 12 represented the Congress, three were from JD(S), and two were Independents.
Mr. Patil said most of the disqualified MLAs were in New Delhi in anticipation of a ruling from the Supreme Court on Tuesday.