A section of MLAs from Bengaluru, who had rebelled against the coalition government and were disqualified, returned to the city after over three weeks on Monday.
This was even as two disqualified legislators — Ramesh Jarkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli — moved the Supreme Court against their ouster from the House under the anti-defection law.
Defending their resignation as a decision they were forced to take for the development of their constituency, they announced that they will challenge the Speaker’s decision in Supreme Court. They said they will consult the voters in their constituencies on their next political move.
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In fact, the remaining rebels reached New Delhi on Monday and held consultations with legal experts on the petition to be filed in Supreme Court, sources said.
A.H. Vishwanath, former MLA, told mediapersons in Mumbai that they were confident of getting relief in Supreme Court in a short time as the Speaker’s order disqualifying them was also in contempt of the court’s order that granted them immunity from the whip.
Former MLA for Maski Pratapgouda Patil released a video message to his voters asking them “not to panic” over his disqualification and assuring them that he would contest the bypolls after relief from the court.
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S.T. Somashekhar, former MLA for Yeshwantpur, said he was hurt that the Congress leaders did not listen to their complaints forcing them to resign, but got them disqualified with vengeance later. When quizzed whether they will join the BJP, three MLAs — Mr. Somashekhar, Munirathna and B.A. Basavaraj — maintained that they were yet to take a call on the issue and would do so after holding wide ranging consultations with the voters.
Another former MLA N. Nagaraju (MTB) expressed his intentions to retire from active politics. When quizzed whether he would get his son to contest the bypolls, he said it was left to him.