Yeddyurappa must quit, demands Congress

 The Congress party on Saturday demanded the resignation of Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa in the wake of the Supreme Court judgment restoring the membership of 16 rebel MLAs, who had withdrawn support to him last year.

“They have violated the Constitution. After the Supreme Court order they have lost the moral authority to be in power. We demand they should resign,” Madhusudan Mistry, Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka told Deccan Herald.

Asked if the party will demand a test on floor, Mistry said: “It depends on the Governor of the state. He will take a call on it.”

Earlier in the day, Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said that “it is too premature to say anything” about asking Yeddyurappa to prove majority on the floor after the apex court restored the membership of the disqualified legislators.

Notably, the apex court on Friday restored the membership of 16 disqualified Karnataka MLAs. The 16 legislators, 11 of the ruling BJP and five Independents, were disqualified by Speaker K G Bopaiah on October 10, 2010, a day before Yeddyurappa was to seek confidence vote in the Assembly on October 11.

The Karnataka High Court in its February 14, 2011 verdict upheld the disqualification of the legislators.

The disqualified BJP legislators were Balachandra Jarkiholi, Belur Gopalakrishna, Anand Asnotikar, Sarvabhowma Bagali, V Nagaraju, Raje Kage, Y Sampangi, Nanjundaswamy, S K Bellubbi, H S Shankara Lingegowda and Shivanagouda Naik.