The political heat in Karnataka rose on Wednesday as 10 MLAs of the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) were suspended from the legislative assembly for throwing papers at Deputy Speaker Rudrappa Lamani. The incident occurred amid the ruckus in the assembly during which the BJP MLAs were protesting against the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in the state for misusing IAS officers who received leaders of other parties during the Opposition meet in Bengaluru.
Following the act, assembly Speaker UT Khader reportedly suspended BJP MLAs Dheeraj Muniraj, Umanath Kotian, Aravind Bellad, Yashpal Suvarna, Vedvyasa Kamath, R Ashok, Sunil Kumar, Araga Jnanendra, Bharat Shetty and Ashwath Narayan.
Karnataka BJP MLA & former state minister CN Ashwath Narayan who was one of the suspended MLAs said that they have issued a no-confidence motion against the speaker.
“Today is the Black day, despite being on the right side we have been suspended. We have issued a no-confidence motion against the speaker,” Karnataka BJP MLA & former state minister CN Ashwath Narayan said after getting suspended from the assembly with 9 other MLAs.
‘Black Day for Democracy’: Basavaraj Bommai
Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai called it a black for Democracy and said that the suspension of BJP MLAs shows the dictatorship of the Congress government and we will fight for the right of suspended MLAs.
“This is the black day for Democracy. There was a murder of democracy today. They (10 BJP MLAs) have been suspended for their small agitation. We will fight for the right of the suspended MLAs,” former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on the suspension of 10 BJP leaders.
“Today was the murder of Democracy in the Assembly. This shows the dictatorship of the Congress government, they have suspended 10 of our MLAs for no reason. We have issued a no-confidence motion against the speaker. We will take this fight to the people,” Bommai added.
The issue of IAS officers receiving Opposition leaders raised tensions amongst the parties in Karnataka with both BJP and JD(S) slamming the Congress-ruled government over the issue. Chief Minister Siddharamaih clarified that the Karnataka government had no role to play in the Opposition meeting.
“Chief Ministers of various states and former central ministers who arrived in Bangalore were considered as state guests. Officials were assigned only to welcome all the dignitaries as per etiquette. Apart from this, the state government has no role in this event. This kind of etiquette was observed in all previous governments,” Siddharamaih said.
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Updated: 19 Jul 2023, 09:17 PM IST