Bengaluru: Just two days after the ruling BJP swept the Assembly bypolls, the group of disqualified MLAs, eleven of whom have been re-elected from their respective constituencies, got down to work meeting Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and pressurising him to accommodate defeated BJP candidates A.H. Vishwanath (Hunsur) and M.T.B. Nagaraj (Hosakote) too in the Cabinet whenever it is expanded.
Well aware of the pivotal role these newly elected MLAs and the two who could not make it in the bypolls, played in his return as CM after toppling the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in July, Mr Yediyurappa reportedly assured them that he would be going to Delhi in a day or two to discuss the modalities of expansion with party national president Amit Shah and working president J.P. Nadda.
With the newly legislators insisting that Vishwanath and Nagaraj be nominated to the Legislative Council to clear the way for their induction into the ministry, there is a possibility of current BJP MLCs being asked to resign to make way for the defeated candidates. There is no vacancy in the Council at present but one will be created with newly elected Congress MLA Rizwan Arshad likely to resign from the Upper House. This seat is however likely to go to Deputy CM Laxman Savadi who is not a member of either House and has to be elected within six months of joining the Cabinet. Barring Vishwanath and Nagaraj, all the remaining 11 disqualified MLAs who contested, won the by-elections and their induction into the Cabinet is a certainty. When the expansion is undertaken, the CM will also have to induct Mr R. Shankar, the disqualified Independent MLA from Ranebennur who was not given the BJP ticket in the bypolls and was instead promised a MLC seat.
The group of new legislators had another request to make to the CM-exert pressure on the defeated BJP candidates in the 2018 assembly polls to withdraw the election petitions they have filed against disqualified MLAs Munirathna Naidu and Pratapgouda Patil who had then emerged victorious in Rajarajeshwarinagar and Maski assembly constituencies. The bypolls to these two seats have been put off because of the pending litigation which may delay Munirathna and Patil's prospects of contesting the bypolls and making it to the cabinet, they asserted.
The legislators also wanted stern action to be taken against Chikballapur BJP MP, B.N. Bache Gowda for silently campaigning for his son, Sharath Bachegowda, who contested as an independent against Mr Nagaraj in Hosakote winning the seat and blamed a few local BJP leaders, who worked against Mr Vishwanath, for his defeat in Hunsur.
'The chief minister gave us a patient hearing and said he had already brought the behaviour of the senior Bachegowda to the notice of national leaders and they had promised to take necessary action after the winter session of parliament," a newly elected MLA told Deccan Chronicle.
