In a major victory for the B.S. Yeddyurappa government in Karnataka, which is bracing for the fallout of the Supreme Court decision on the fate of the 11 BJP rebels, the Karnataka high court on Monday upheld the order of Speaker K.G. Bopaiah disqualifying five Independent MLAs on the grounds of defection.
The MLAs — Sudhakar, Venkataramanappa, Goo-lihatti D. Shekar, Shivaraj S. Tangadagi and P.M. dNarendra Swamy — announced that they would move the Supreme Court.
A shocked Mr Tangadagi told this newspaper: “Giving support to the B.S. Yeddyurappa government was a big mistake. The BJP has betrayed our voters, we were disqualified just because we pointed out the misdeeds committed by the BJP government.”
Speaking to reporters soon after the verdict, a relieved chief minister said the “historic judgment is not only applicable to Karnataka, it sets a precedent for other states.”
Oblivious to the fact that all five had been inveigled into supporting his government with the offer of ministries, the chief minister said it was “a victory for democracy”, and that “the verdict had taught a lesson to defectors who deserted their parent parties and joined another party.” This judgment will give more teeth to the anti-defection law, he said.
The Yeddyurappa government at present has a wafer-thin majority of two MLAs in the Assembly. The state government is bracing for the verdict on the 11 BJP MLAs, the judgment on which has now been reserved by the Supreme Court. If the rebels are disqualified, the chief minister can rest easy. If not, the Opposition’s numbers will swell to 114.
The chief minister’s only comfort is that the Congress and the Janata Dal (S) have had a recent falling out and may not be able to capitalise on the stepped-up strength of the Opposition in case the highest court rules in the rebel legislators’ favour.
JD(S) president H.D. Kumaraswamy, who led the ill-fated rebellion against the chief minister in October 2010, lashed out at the BJP for disqualifying the MLAs in the first place, and vowed “moral support” to the five disqualified Independent MLAs’ efforts to challenge the order.
State BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa was triumphant. He said both the Congress and JD(S), rejected by the people in the last Assembly elections, had “misguided” the five Independents and the 11 BJP rebel MLAs. He said the high court verdict was a lesson to both parties. “The high court upheld the Constitution by dismissing the MLAs’ petition,” he said.
At the high court on Monday, a full bench comprising Justices Mohan Shantanagoudar, Abdul Nazeer and A.S. Bopanna unanimously upheld the Speaker’s order and dismissed the petitions of the five, saying there was no merit in the contentions raised by them.