JOIN US“The reality is that from October 11, 2010, the BJP has been running an illegal government based on a manufactured majority that was obtained by the abuse of constitutional office,” Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari said.
Quoting the Supreme Court’s order quashing the disqualification of rebel BJP MLAs by Karnataka Speaker KG Bopaiah, Tewari asked: “Does the chief minister and the Speaker have the moral right to continue even for a single moment after these observations of the Supreme Court on their conduct?”
Coming down heavily on the BJP central leadership, Tewari said “when the Speaker was doing his job, the BJP central leadership, including the Leader of Opposition and former chairperson of the NDA, were lauding him”.
Claiming that the Opposition party had “succeeded in elevating sophistry to the fine art of trickery” and “conjured” up a majority, the Congress spokesman said this showed the BJP had scant respect for the Constitution.
When asked why the Congress was not demanding Yeddyurappa’s resignation, Tewari said:“One can demand resignation from those who have morality” and that “if there was even an iota of morality in the chief minister or the Speaker, they would have resigned immediately after the Supreme Court strictures”.
Replying to questions on reports saying that Karnataka Governor HRBhardwaj had recommended dismissal of the Yeddyurappa government, Tewari said “whatever has to be done in Karnataka is for the Centre to decide”.
Notably, the apex court on Friday restored the membership of 16 disqualified Karnataka legislators (11 BJP and five Independent MLAs), who were disqualified by Bopaiah on October 10, 2010, a day before Yeddyurappa was to seek a trust vote in the Assembly.
In its February 14, 2011, verdict, the Karnataka High Court upheld the disqualification of the 16 MLAs.
The disqualified BJP legislators were Balachandra Jarkiholi, Belur Gopalakrishna, Anand Asnotikar, Sarvabowma Bagali, V Nagaraju, Raje Kage, Y Sampangi, Nanjundaswamy, S K Bellubbi, H S Shankara Lingegowda and Shivanagouda Naik. The five Independents MLAs were Gulihatti Shekar, D Sudhakar, P M Narendra Swamy, Venkataramanappa and Shivaraj Tangadagi.