‘Will disqualify deserters’: Siddaramaiah after Congress party meet

Bengaluru: Soon after the Congress Legislative Party meet at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Wednesday morning, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah hit out at the Opposition in Karnataka, accusing them of attempting to destabilise the government.

“It has been a habit of BJP to destabilise governments. This is undemocratic, people haven't given mandate to BJP to form the government. People have given more votes to us. Both JD(S) and Congress together got more than 57% of votes,” Siddaramaiah said.

Picking out Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Siddaramaiah said, “This time it is not only the state BJP wing, but national leaders like Amit Shah and Mr Modi are involved. On their direction, efforts have been made to destabilise government. It is against democracy and people's mandate. They're offering money, position, ministership.”

He also said the Congress party has sought the disqualification of members for their anti-party activities and for colluding with the BJP. “I request them to come back and withdraw their resignation,” he said.

He also mentioned the Congress has decided to file a petition before the Speaker of the House to disqualify them and not accept their resignations. He also said the party will request the Speaker to take legal action under the anti-defection law.

“We are requesting him in our letter to not only disqualify them but also bar them from contesting election for 6 years,” Siddaramaiah said while speaking to reporters in Bengaluru.

This comes after 15 MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) alliance resigned in the last few days choosing to make Mumbai there base.