Bengaluru: Assembly Speaker K B Koliwad reserved the judgement following completion of hearing seeking disqualification of the seven rebel legislators after the Janata Dal (Secular) took legal route seeking their disqualification.
On March 15, the JDS, which had remained quiet for nearly two years, urged Speaker K B Koliwad to prevent the seven legislators from voting in Rajya Sabha elections due on March 23 and also to urgently hear the disqualification matter.
Speaker, while accepting the petition then, termed it as not legal. “Hearing in the case is not complete and arguments have not taken place. Unless the members are disqualified they are considered as members and they have the right to vote”, he had said.
The JD(S) in 2016, had filed a petition seeking disqualification of B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, H C Balakrishna, N Cheluvarayaswamy, Akhanda Srinivasmurthy, Iqbal Ansari, Bheema Naik and Babu Bandisidde Gowda after they violated the party’s whip and voted for the Congress candidate during the last Rajya Sabha elections.
The decision of JDS to seek the Speaker’s intervention, is mainly to prevent the rebel legislators from casting their vote in favour of Congress’s third candiadte G C Chandrashekar and and mount pressure on the Congress.
Meanwhile, JDS is set to move High Court, in case the Speaker does not provide any relief.
Now,with speaker reserving judgement, this week’s elections to the four seats of the Rajya Sabha takes a different turn because uncertainties still linger.
Meanwhile,rebel legislator N Cheluvarayaswamy accused JDS of tormenting them. “The verdict of the electorate in the forthcoming elections is supreme compared to the court verdict”, he argued.
