JOIN USEvading a direct reply to a query whether the state government should be dismissed, party spokesperson Manish Tewari told newsmen here that his party would await for the Governor’s report to the Centre before firming up its response.
"What happened in Karnataka Assembly on Monday was not only the complete murder of democracy but also of constitutionalism.... The unfortunate spectacle of a minority government being turned into a majority government by a collusive, manipulative and unethical act perpetrated by the Speaker of the Assembly," party Tewari said.
As the government has been reduced to a minority, it should not be allowed to continue and the Governor should take an “appropriate” decision. Tewari said.
Questioning the Speaker’s failure to call for a division of vote, he claimed that the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution dealing with anti-defection law that was "trampled upon" and "the spirit of the Indian Constitution was massacred" in the Karnataka Assembly.
"If BJP claims that it had the numbers, then why disqualify the MLAs even before they exercise their right to vote...If BJP was confident of its numbers, there should have been a proper division (of votes) in the House, a process should have been followed," the spokesperson said.
AICC General Secretary B K Hariprasad accused the BJP for "ruining" the image of Karnataka and bringing "disrepute" to the state politics. "Whatever has happened in Karnataka is shameful. It is totally unconstitutional, unethical and illegal," he said.
On its part, the BJP continued its attack against Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj saying that he was working as “agent of the Congress doing a dirty job”.
Party president Nitin Gadkari charged the Centre of “misusing its power and money to dethrone” a democratically elected government.
"The manner in which Congress and JD(S) used money-power and muscle-power for horse-trading of MLAs in Karnataka and tried to pull down the BJP government there was like a on purpose attempt for murder of democracy," he said.
"The Karnataka Governor's recommendation of President's Rule is nothing but a pre-written Congress script against the elected government of Karnataka. The Congress from the very beginning is misusing the Governor's office for its political purposes and has converted the Raj Bhavan of Karnataka into a Congress Bhavan,” BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told newsmen.