Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s Spokesperson Ramesh Babu and the General Secretary, Ramachandrappa, filed a petition on Wednesday, March 27 before the Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, seeking the disqualification of Gangavathi MLA, Janardhana Reddy, from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. The petition also requested an interim stay on any recognition granted to Janardhana Reddy as a legislative party member of the BJP.
Janardhana Reddy recently rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on March 25, after previously leaving it in 2022. He also merged his Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha (KRPP) with the BJP. Janardhana, who faces allegations in an illegal mining case, contested and won the Karnataka Assembly elections in 2023 as a KRPP candidate from Gangavathi. He was the only candidate from KRPP to win a seat in the elections.
Terming the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the “Bond Janata Party”, Ramesh Babu said, “The BJP party is taking all the tainted people and those who are accused of corruption into their party and cleaning them like a washing machine. BJP buying the leaders of other parties, misusing central investigation agencies and threatening them to join their party. Modi is saying that he is not corrupt and will not let anyone else be corrupt but the opposite is happening. BJP has been unmasked by the Supreme Court after electoral bonds were made public. BJP has now emerged as the ‘Bond Janata Party’.”
In their petition, Ramesh Babu and Ramachandrappa stated that as per Form 24a submitted by the KRPP to the Election Commission of India in March 2023, it was a registered but unrecognised party and Janardhana Reddy was not an office bearer on the date of submission. Urging his disqualification, they stated that Janardhana Reddy had failed to secure the approval of the Speaker and the Election Commission to merge the KRPP with the BJP. They argued that since the KRPP had registered as a political party under Section 29 of the Representation of People Act, the lack of approval would attract the disqualification of Reddy under Schedule 10 of the Constitution.
“The Respondent before declaring of merging of his political party on the street, has failed to take approval of respective Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the approval of the Election Commission of India. It is not a disputed fact that namely Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha has registered as a political party with the Election Commission of India under section 29 A of the Representation of Peoples Act 1951. The Respondent without intimating to the above authority has taken the decision to merge Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha with the BJP party and the same is illegal and said action attracts disqualification,” the petition said.
The Congress leaders added that Janardhana Reddy had decided to merge while not being a KRPP office bearer, while as per the BJP bylaws, merger decisions had to be taken by the national president, and there was no prior written approval for the same.