BJP leader GVL Narasimha Rao on Wednesday said that the verdict of the Supreme Court to allow the 17 disqualified MLAs in Karnataka to contest the upcoming bye-elections is an indictment of the former Karnataka speaker KR Ramesh Kumar.
"The verdict of the honourable Supreme Court which allows the disqualified 17 MLAs in Karnataka to contest the upcoming bye-elections is an indictment of the erstwhile Karnataka speaker. He actually acted like an agent of Congress party. He took actions which were beyond the competence of the institution of the speaker," Rao told .
"While accepting the decision of disqualification of the 17 MLAs but by setting aside the speaker's decision to bar them in contesting elections, the Supreme Court has granted relief to the disqualified MLAs. Any MLA or MP must have the freedom to resign from their positions. The bye-elections for the assembly seats in Karnataka have already been notified. Certainly, the bye-elections will give further strength to the BJP and it will allow the party to give a stable government which will last a full tenure of 5 years," he added.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the decision of the then Karnataka speaker Kumar to disqualify 17 rebel Congress-JD(S) MLAs under the anti-defection law and said that they can contest the upcoming by-elections in the state.
The elections for 15 out of 17 seats are slated to be held on December 5. The poll body had withheld the elections for two seats -- Maski and Rajarajeshwari.
After the MLAs' disqualification, the strength of the 224-member Assembly had come down to 207. This had brought down the majority mark to 104. The BJP, which helms the government in the state, has 106 MLAs in the Assembly.
With the by-poll elections, the majority mark will climb to 112 and the BJP will have to win a minimum of six out of fifteen seats to keep its majority.
( With inputs from ANI )