BENGALURU: Jittery over possible disqualification, two JD(S) legislators — Shivaraj Patil and Manappa Vajjal — informed Speaker K.B. Koliwad’s office on Monday that though they sent their resignation letters as members of the House, they have not formally joined the BJP. Both legislators attended a BJP rally on January 17, and later announced their decision to quit as MLAs, and join the BJP. They, however, rushed to the Speaker’s office on Monday on receiving a notice in the light of a complaint lodged by JD(S) leaders, seeking disqualification under Anti-defection Act on grounds that their resignation letters were not accepted by Mr Koliwad till date. The Speaker had issued notice to both members and sought their explanation.
The upshot: They met Mr N. Murthy, Secretary, Legislative Assembly, on Monday, and submitted their replies to the notice. In their reply, they said that they had neither resigned from JD(S), nor had obtained preliminary membership of BJP. “We have tendered our resignation as Member of the Legislative Assembly,” they said.
“We were invited to a function on that day by BJP leaders and we attended the function. That does not mean that we have accepted preliminary membership of the party. Any decision will be taken only after our resignation letters are accepted,” the MLAs added.
