Pressure not easing on Speaker

Stepping up their pressure, opposition Congress and independents On Wednesday staged a protest in the Assembly demanding Speaker K G Bopaiah's resignation in the wake of Supreme Court's verdict in a disqualification case.

Making preliminary submissions seeking to move an adjournment motion on the issue, Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah (Congress) said the Supreme Court on January 25 passed “strictures” against the Speaker while terming his order disqualifying five independent MLAs in October 2010 before a trust vote unconstitutional.

“Supreme Court has passed strictures against him. How can he continue in office. This is an illegal government,” he said, as Congress members attended the House tying black bands around their sleeves and independents with black cloth around their necks, as a mark of protest.

Law and Parliamentary affairs Minister S Suresh Kumar said the Speaker was the custodian of the House and he could not be a discussion point and appealed to the Chair to reject the motion.

Deputy Speaker N Yogish Bhat said the functioning of the Speaker cannot be called into question and disallowed the motion. Bopaiah was absent On Wednesday.

When the House re-assembled post-lunch, independent members — P M Narendraswamy, D Sudhakar, Shivaraj S Thangadagi, Venkataramanappa and Gulihatti D Shekhar — trooped into the Well of the House to press their demand.

Siddaramaiah appealed to the Deputy Speaker to reconsider his decision but the latter said it's a closed chapter and suggested to Narendraswamy to raise the issue in a different form.

As Siddaramaiah started leading Congress members into the Well to join the independent members in dharna,Bhat adjourned the House for the day.