Poojary defends Governor, blasts Speaker

BJP leaders should have asked BSY to step down when MLAs withdrew support

 
Speaking with the reporters here on Monday, he said  that according to the Schedule 10 of the Constitution, Speaker can disqualify a MLA when he  deserts  his party or violates the party’s direction in the Assembly but in this case the 11 BJP MLAs had only expressed their unhappiness over the leadership and had not left the party.

The five independent MLAs who had extended support and thus helped in the formation of the BJP led government  have the right  to withdraw their support anytime.

They are not BJP MLAs. Unfortunately, the Speaker misused his power and disqualified independent MLAs.

“The Assembly Speaker has not followed any provisions of the Constitution. He has violated all the rules.  When there was no confidence motion pending against Speaker, he should have placed it before the Assembly and proved that he enjoyed the confidence of the house  first. Without Chief Minister moving the confidence motion, how can Speaker K G Bopaiah declare the motion of confidence passed by a voice vote?” he asked.  “It is completely against democracy  and is clearly a mockery of the Constitution. The  Speaker’s action is an  assault on  democracy. It is undoubtedly a black day in the history of our country,” he said, alleging Yeddyurappa of reducing Speaker K G Bopaiah to a mere puppet in the hands of the ruling party.

“It was clear that the government did not have majority on October 6 itself. Instead of tendering resignation, Yeddyurappa acted arrogantly just to stay in power,” said Poojary.
He said that the Governor’s letter to Speaker asking him not to alter the configuration of the Assembly must have been placed before the Assembly.

“Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa is incompetent to rule the State. If the BJP High Command had respect for the Constitution, then it would have had asked Yeddyurappa to tender resignation on the day when 16 MLAs had withdrawn their support after taking objection to his leadership,” Poojary said.

“As the leader of the Assembly, you (Yeddyurappa) had the right to protect MLAs, when they were pleading with the police to allow them inside the Assembly. For the first time, police force entered the Assembly hall. What was the need for Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari to prevent the MLAs from entering the Assembly? The act clearly shows dictatorship of the Chief Minister,” he added.