BENGALURU: Jolted by the decision of eight party MLAs to vote for a Congress candidate during Rajya Sabha polls on Saturday, leaders of JD(S) convened a meeting on Sunday to initiate action against these rebel legislators.
The legislators — Zameer Ahamed Khan, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, Iqbal Ansari, H.C. Balakrishna, Ramesh Bandi Siddegowda, K. Gopalaiah, Bheema Nayak and Akhanda Srinivas Murthy — voted for Congress candidate and former IPS officer K.C. Ramamurthy, helping him top the chart of winners with 52 votes. Leaders of the party, however, knew they had lost the plot even before the first vote was cast.
Reason: five MLAs—Zameer Ahmed Khan, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, Iqbal Ansari, H.C. Balakrishna and Akhanda Srinivas Murthy—had crossed the line and were never in touch with leaders during the last three days. The leaders had pasted the whip, asking them to vote for B M Farookh, on the doors of their rooms at Legislators Home, and did not bother to contact them.
On Saturday, however, these five legislators brought along three more legislators—Bheema Naik, Ramesh Bandi Siddegowda and K. Gopalaiah—to support the Congress. The trio was with state unit president H D Kumaraswamy till Friday, but turned their cell phones off on Saturday morning.
Describing the rebels as “cancer” plaguing the party, Mr Kumaraswamy said “We should have found an antidote for it. It is late. We will have to find a solution before it reaches the terminal stage,” adding that he would never ever meet these dissidents. “They grew up in the party and now they betrayed it,” he added.
The party would suspend or expel them on Sunday. “We will approach the court seeking their disqualification,” Mr Kumaraswamy told DC. Under the anti-defection act, a whip outside the Assembly hall does not attract the penal clause of disqualification. Therefore, the party would approach the court to expand the definition of anti-defection, said one of the leaders involved in the process.
Farook of JD(S) ends last in race
The Janata Dal (Secular) candidate, Mr B M Farook was defeated. He got only 33 votes. In the one-sided contest of RS polls held here on Saturday eight JD(S) legislators voted for Congress candidate Mr Ramamurthy which helped the Congress to ensure the victory of the third candidate.
Those JD(S) legislators who cross-voted include Zameer Ahmed Khan, Iqbal Ansari, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, Akhanda Srinivasamurthy, H.C, Balakrishna, K. Gopalaiah, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda and Bheema Naik.
This came as a major embarrassment for the JD(S) which had in the past brought candidates from outside the political spectrum and elected them to Rajya Sabha. Those include M.A.M. Ramaswamy and Kupendra Reddy and Vijay Mallya. This was the first time that the party failed to elect an outsider.
After a few JD(S) legislators turned rebels, party national president, Mr H D Deve Gowda and State Unit President, Mr H D Kumaraswamy tried to quell the dissidence.
They also tried to poach upon Congress MLAs which in the end did not come through. Bid to resolve the crisis failed as those rebel legislators stuck to their stand. However, cross voting by three JD(S) legislators K. Gopalaiah, Ramesh Bandisiddegowda and Mr Bheema Naik who, so far, had been with Kumaraswamy camp, too became hostile on Saturday.
All of them came in a group and openly displayed their ballot paper to former minister and MLA, Mr H D Revanna who was the JD(S) agent in the polling booth, and embarrassed him. After that, the JD(S) leaders accepted the defeat of their candidate, Mr Farook.
