Congress MLAs likely to join BJP in Karnataka

According to BJP sources all the three dissident Congress MLAs, who were facing disqualification of their membership from the Karnataka Assembly, for defying the party’s whip recently, may join the Saffron party and contest from their seat in the coming Lok Sabha elections in Karnataka.

Ramesh Jarkiholi (Belagavi), Umesh Jadhav (Kalaburagi) and Nagendra (Ballari) were expected to join BJP, the sources further said.

The State BJP leaders, have reportedly promised all the three MLAs to give party ticket to contest from Chikkodi, Kalaburagi and Ballari Lok Sabha constituencies.

All the three Lok Sabha seats, are currently held by the Congress party.

However a petition, seeking disqualification of all the three MLAs, submitted by the Congress Legislative Party leader, Siddaramaiah, is pending for disposal with the Speaker, Ramesh Kumar.

It may be recalled that all the three Congress MLAs, while contemplating to join the BJP were also allegedly trying to lure other Congress MLAs to cross over to the BJP and topple the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in the state.

Chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, who is heading the JD(S)-Congress government had released the audio-tape in a press conference containing the voices of the State BJP chief B S Yeddyurappa, who had offered a JD(S) MLA to resign his seat for a huge sum of money and an inquiry had also been ordered into the incident by the Karnataka Assembly speaker, K Ramesh Kumar, recently.

The BJP chief, B S Yeddyurappa, had obtained bail against any possibilities of his arrest by the police into the case, while the Kalaburagi bench of the Karnataka High Court had also granted an interim stay into the case. 

Image: UNI