Legislative Council Chairman D H Shankaramurthy on Saturday said his office would soon serve notices on the five BJP MLCs whose disqualification has been sought by the State BJP for their alleged anti-party activities.
“There are well laid out procedures and rules for taking up the disqualification process. I will be fair and take a proper decision. I will not be in a hurry,” Shankaramurthy said, but declined to set a time-frame for taking a final decision in the matter. The State BJP, earlier this week, had filed a petition before Shankaramurthy, seeking the disqualification of Bharathi Shetty and B J Puttaswamy (both elected from Legislative Assembly constituency), Mohan Limbikai (Graduates’ constituency), Shivaraj Sajjanar (local authorities’ constituency) and Mumtaz Ali Khan (nominated member who has affiliated himself with the BJP), for associating themselves with Yeddyurappa’s KJP, while being in the BJP.
Addressing the customary press conference ahead of the budget session starting Monday, Shankaramurthy said notices would be served on the five MLCs seeking their response on the disqualification petition in the “interest of natural justice” and “fair play”.
“I will go by the procedure book and guidelines,” Shankaramurthy said and added that he had just returned from a foreign trip and was yet to go through the petition in detail.
The BJP, in its petition, has enclosed newspaper clippings and video footage to prove that the five MLCs had attended the KJP inaugural convention in Haveri on December 9, despite being in the BJP, thus attracting disqualification under Section (2) (1) (a) of the 10th schedule of the Constitution.
Shankaramurthy said as many as 308 questions and 22 call attention notices had been received to be taken up during the eight-day session.
Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah did not hold his customary press conference ahead of the session. He is expected to return to Bangalore Sunday evening, from Madikeri.