Bengaluru: Ruling Congress members of the legislative council have moved a no confidence motion against its chairman, D H Shankarmurthy, which will be placed before the House for discussion when it meets.
Confirming this, Mr Shankarmurthy said the council secretary had received a copy of the no confidence motion signed by seven Congress MLCs, V S Ugrappa, Sharanappa Mattur, K C Kondaiah, Abdul Jabbar, M A Gopalaswamy, R Prasanna Kumar and H M Revanna. Under the rules, the motion will come into effect 14 days after receipt and will then have to placed before the House for discussion.
The ruling Congress, which has been waiting to unseat Mr Shankarmurthy ,waited till it got majority in the House to move the resolution. As the BJP does not have a majority in the 75-member Council, Mr Shankarmurthy may have to step down unless the Janata Dal (Secular) helps it defeat the motion.
JD(S) MLC, Ramesh Babu, said his party leaders, H D Deve Gowda, H.D. Kumaraswamy and Basavaraja Horatti would soon take a decision on the no confidence motion moved by the Congress against the council chairman.
Mr Shankaramurthy, meanwhile, revealed that notices had been served to eight Congress MLCs who had claimed TA/DA for attending the meetings of various standing committees despite being residents of Bengaluru and voters of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike area.
The action follows a complaint by an opposition party leader in the BBMP council, who produced documents to show that the eight MLCs had claimed allowances running into lakhs despite living in Bengaluru. “There will be no action against the legislators till a full-fledged inquiry is conducted,” the chairman added.
Rizwan Arshad: KC didn’t pull me up at all!
Congress MLC Rizwan Arshad said a consultative meeting convened by AICC General Secretary and in-charge of Karnataka affairs K.C. Venugopal discussed in detail the strategy for the 2018 Assembly polls and more importantly, the issue of winning the maximum number of seats in Bengaluru.
Denying reports that he was taken to task by Venugopal on the elections held to the Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee (KPYCC), Rizwan said issues pertaining to the Youth Congress did not figure in the meeting at all. The meeting focused on the Congress making a return to power with a good majority.
Twenty five leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and PCC president Dr G. Parameshwar, participated in the meeting on Bengaluru City and Rural districts which have a whopping 28 seats. Rizwan made it clear that he was not responsible for any irregularities in elections to Youth Congress posts since he was no longer the president of the Youth Congress. “I have been a loyal soldier of the party and have never done anything that will dent the party image.”
