The Bharatiya Janata Party, which was hitherto cautious of openly identifying with the rebel MLAs, has come out strongly defending them and criticising the Assembly Speaker’s ruling of disqualifying them on Sunday.
BJP leader Govind M. Karjol said the order was “bad in law”. The Speaker seems to have come under pressure from political parties and not considered their resignations, he said. “No court will accept this order. An MLA has the right to submit his resignation, which cannot be denied. This is an order with malafide intention. It is not in line with principles of natural justice and is illegal. They will obviously challenge it in the court,” he said.
Union Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said while the Speaker has given his decision, the MLAs have the right to challenge it in court. “The Speaker should have given a chance to the MLAs to explain themselves before taking his decision. The Speaker’s order has given room to suspicion that he has taken this decision under pressure from political parties,” he said.
A.S. Nadahalli, BJP MLA, said: “The Constitution says the Speaker must only verify the resignation of MLAs to check if it’s genuine and voluntary. The rebel MLAs have submitted a sworn affidavit on their resignation to the Supreme Court. What else does the Speaker need to prove that it’s genuine and voluntary? His disqualification order is illegal and won’t stand in the Supreme Court,” he said.
‘Historic decision’
Terming the Speaker’s decision as “historic”, Janata Dal (Secular) national president H.D. Deve Gowda said after the implementation of the anti-defection law in the country, several decisions have come out. “In my experience, today’s decision of the Speaker is special.”
Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah took to Twitter and said: “I welcome the decision of the Speaker to disqualify 14 MLAs. The honest decision of the Speaker will send strong signals for all the representatives in the country, who might fall for @BJP4India’s trap.” When asked about the attempts made by the rebels to speak to him over phone after the Speaker disqualified three MLAs on Thursday, Mr. Siddaramaiah told presspesons in Mysuru that two of them had indeed called him, but he does not want to keep repeating it.
