Karnataka Legislative Council: 14 Congress MLCs suspended over violation of rules

In a breaking update, 14 Congress members were suspended from Karnataka Legislative Council on Wednesday. As per sources, the Council Chairman's instructions were violated by the members of the legislative council, due to which, the action was taken under rules of 326 and 327. Suspended Council members are currently protesting in the well of the council. The suspended members were demanding a debate on allegations of land-grabbing involving a minister and a legislator. The members are the Leader of Opposition SR Patil, M Narayanaswamy, BK Hariprasad, Pratap Chandra Shetty, CM Ibrahim, Naseer Ahmed, RB Thimmapura, Basavaraj Patil Itagi, UB Venkatesh, Aravind Kumar Arali, MA Gopalaswamy, CM Lingappa, Veena Achaiah, PR Ramesh and Harish Kumar. 

Karnataka MLC Election

Meanwhile, in the Karnataka Legislative Council elections, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured a majority by winning 12 seats, while Congress won 11 out of 25 seats. As things stand, BJP has 38 members in the 75-member Legislative Council. JDS faced a major setback as the party could secure only one seat, which was won by HD Deve Gowda's grandson Suraj Revanna from the Hassan seat.

On December 10, the voting was held for the biennial election to Karnataka Legislative Council’s 25 seats from 20 Local Authorities’ Constituencies. During the polls, about 99 per cent voter turnout was recorded. There were a total of 90 candidates, of which 20 were from BJP and Congress, six were from JD(S), 33 Independents, and the rest from smaller parties. Since the tenures of the MLCs are set to end on January 5, the election was necessitated. Out of 25 outgoing MLCs, seven are from BJP, 14 from Congress, and four from JD(S).

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