New Delhi: The Karnataka high court (HC) ruled that BJP member of legislative council (MLC) A.H. Vishwanath is ineligible to be minister in chief minister Yediyurappa’s cabinet as he was disqualified as an MLA last year under the anti-defection law.
Vishwanath was one of the 17 rebel MLAs who resigned from the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in Karnataka in July last year to join the BJP. He was disqualified along with other rebel MLAs by the speaker under the anti-defection law and the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification.
Though he contested re-elections from Hunsur in December on a BJP ticket, and lost. According to the Indian Express, Yediyurappa nominated Vishwanath as an MLC to fulfil promises of providing ministerial posts to all defectors who helped the BJP form the government.
The court ruled that Vishwanath “attracts disqualification under Article 164 (1) (b) and Article 361 (B)” of the Constitution of India until he is re-elected to the legislature.
However, in the case of two other defectors, M.T.B Nagaraj and R. Shankar – whose failure to get re-elected to the state assembly was challenged in the high court along with Vishwanath’s petition – the HC bench said that despite being disqualified as MLAs under the anti-defection law, the two were elected to the legislative council unlike Vishwanath who was nominated, the report added.
Article 164(1) says that “a member of the legislative assembly of a State or either House of the legislature of a State having legislative council belonging to any political party who is disqualified for being a member of that House… shall also be disqualified to be appointed as a minister… for duration of the period commencing from the date of his disqualification till the date on which the term of his office as such member would expire or where he contests any election to the legislative assembly of a State or either House of the legislature of a State having legislative council, as the case may be, before the expiry of such period, till the date on which he is declared elected, whichever is earlier.”
The Indian Express report says that the HC decision is likely to be a bit of a “breather” for Yediyurappa who is under pressure to fulfil his promise to accommodate all the defectors in the state cabinet.
Yediyurappa is looking to expand his 27-member cabinet on a big scale to its full strength of 34 ministers and there is intense competition for the seven openings.
However, multiple requests by Yediyurappa to obtain a cabinet expansion clearance were turned down by the BJP over the last few months – seemingly a stumbling block in the path of the chief minister’s plans. However, this time, the chief minister had reportedly said that a cabinet expansion would be carried out in two to three days. The BJP leadership turned him down again when he travelled to Delhi in the second week of November to obtain a clearance for his cabinet expansion.
