Pralhad Joshi slams K'taka Speaker for disqualifying Cong-JD(S) MLAs

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Sunday slammed Karnataka Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar for disqualifying 14 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs and accused him of misusing his authority.

"He is trying to create a fear psychosis among MLAs but they are not children. They are aware of the law and will approach the Supreme Court. It is unfortunate that so-called learned Speaker is behaving like this. He is misusing the quasi-judicial authority given to him," Joshi told ANI here.

He said that there was no point in disqualifying the rebels as they had tendered their resignation. "This is not valid as per the tenth schedule of the constitution (which deals with the disqualification)," he said.

Days after the 14-month-old coalition government in Karnataka lost majority in the Assembly due to the resignation of disgruntled MLAs, the Speaker on Sunday disqualified 14 MLAs from the Assembly for rest of their tenure as a member.

With the significant development, a total of 17 rebel MLAs from Congress-JD(S) have been disqualified by the Speaker. All the disqualified MLAs cannot contest elections until the expiry of the term of the 15th Legislative Assembly.

Out of the 14 MLAs, 11 of them are from Congress and rest three belongs to its ally JD(S).

Earlier this month, the rebel MLAs had pulled out from the Congress-JD(S) coalition, plunging the coalition government into a minority in the 225-member Assembly, which led to a political crisis in the state.

After days of high-drama and heated debates, the government fell on July 23 as it lost the trust vote in the House. The defeat marked the end of an uneasy coalition that was formed after the assembly polls on May 23, 2018, which returned a hung verdict after three main parties in the state -- Congress, BJP and the JD(S) contested against each other in the polls.

BJP Karnataka president BS Yediyurappa took oath as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka on July 26 and is set to take the trust vote tomorrow.