Karnataka: Big blow for Congress-JD(S); 16 disqualified MLAs join BJP
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Bangalore, November 14: In Karnataka, 16 Congress and JD(S) MLAs formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengaluru today. State Chief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa and State BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel were present on the occasion.
Yediyurappa expressed confidence that BJP will win all the constituencies which go to the by-polls on December 5. He urged the party workers to extend all possible support to the disqualified MLAs. The State BJP President has been appointed party in-charge for all the Assembly segments, going to by-polls.
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the disqualification of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs by the then Speaker K. R. Rameshkumar but allowed them to contest the by-polls.
The disqualified MLAs who joined BJP are are:
Pratap Gowda Patil (Maski), B. C. Patil (Hirekerur), Shivram Hebbar (Yellapur), S. T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), Byrati Basavaraj (K. R. Puram), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), N. Munirathna (R. R. Nagar), K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), MTB Nagaraj (Hoskote), Shrimant Patil (Kagwad), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Mahesh Kumatalli (Athani) and R Shankar (Ranibennur), K. Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), A.H. Vishwanath (Hunsur) and K.C. Narayana Gowda (K. R. Pet).