The curious case of two MLAs who hadn’t resigned

Two of the 17 disqualified Karnataka legislators - R Shankar and Shrimant Patil - had not even resigned, but they will still have to face bypolls on December 5 in order to get re-elected to the Assembly.

Shankar was elected from the Ranebennur constituency from the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) in the May 2018 Assembly polls.

Shankar was inducted into Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet as the Forest minister. He withdrew his support to the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in early 2019 after he was removed from the Cabinet. He was inducted back into the Cabinet in June 2019 as the Municipalities minister, a month before he resigned and joined the rebels camp.

Also read — SC upholds ex-Speaker's order disqualifying 17 MLAs

Switching sides was not new for Shankar. In May 2018, during hectic political activity to form the government, Shankar extended support to the BJP in the morning, but joined the Congress camp in the evening.

In fact, when he was re-inducted into the Cabinet, Shankar had merged the KPJP with the Congress as per Clause 4(2) of the 10th Schedule. Throughout the political drama that unfolded, leading to the collapse of the coalition, Shankar had not resigned as a legislator. But given that his party had been merged with the Congress, Shankar was disqualified for “conspiring to destabilize the government by hobnobbing with the members of the BJP.”

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Speaking to reporters, Shankar said, “My argument was to ensure that my membership remained intact as I had not resigned. But, the court has ruled similarly for all the 17 MLAs.”

The case of Shrimant Patil, who represented Kagwad, was more theatrical. When Patil went missing during HD Kumaraswamy’s trust vote proceedings, the Congress accused the BJP of “kidnapping” the MLA from a resort where he was kept along with other lawmakers.

During the trust vote proceedings, the then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar received a letter purportedly penned by Patil citing ill health as an excuse for his absence. Subsequently, the Speaker’s office received an email from Patil, which read: “I (Shrimant Patil) left the resort to go to Chennai for urgent personal work. There, I started shivering all of a sudden and developed chest pain. I contacted my family doctor in Mumbai and got myself admitted there. There is no malice behind this. Since I had to inform you immediately, I wrote to you on a blank paper. If it was pre-planned, I’d have carried my letter pad with me."

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Like Shankar, Patil had not tendered resignation as a legislator. “I missed (the trust vote) due to ill health. I had even sent a letter too and provided all documents regarding my health. The Speaker had disqualified me out of political pressure and I was confident that SC will rule in my favour. Now, I will go back to the people and seek re-election,” Patil said.