Published 15:57 IST, November 10th 2019
Congress leaders meet ahead of bypolls in K'taka to discuss strategies
The top Congress leaders from Karnataka including Siddaramaiah and BK Hariprasad held a meeting at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office on Sunday.
The top Congress leaders from Karnataka including Siddaramaiah and BK Hariprasad held a meeting at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee office on Sunday. This comes ahead of the upcoming by-polls in the state. The meeting was held to discuss the campaign strategy of the party. Congress leader DK Shivakumar and Dinesh Gundu Rao were also present in the meeting.
Disqualified MLAs approach SC
On Friday, the Karnataka Congress-JD(S) disqualified MLAs approached the Supreme Court seeking to postpone the state bypolls which are scheduled to take place on December 5. This matter was presented in front of the two SC judge-bench headed by Justice SA Bobde. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who represents the disqualified MLAs put forth their request in front of the SC. The bench asked Rohatgi to file the plea and said that they will later consider what to do. Rohatgi said that filing for nomination for 15 assembly by-polls seats is set to begin from November 11 but the judgment against their disqualification is yet to be pronounced by the court.
As the nomination filing begins from November 11 the counting is set to take place in the state by December 9. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Karnataka Congress, had told the top court that the legal challenge to the disqualification of the MLAs needs to be referred to a Constitution Bench. He had contended that then-Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar, who was the Master of the House, exercised his jurisdiction to disqualify the MLAs and his decision cannot be questioned.
Disqualification of Karnataka MLAs
The Congress- JD (S) coalition government fell in the state of Karnataka in just one year after its formation in the month of July this year. About 17 MLAs were disqualified and barred from contesting polls. The Election Commission of India (ECI) scheduled the bypolls for the 15 seats in Karnataka assembly on October 21. However, they had to later postpone the elections as the case on disqualification of 17 MLAs was pending in the Supreme Court. The judgment on their disqualification was reserved by the apex court last month.
(With ANI Inputs)
Updated 23:22 IST, November 10th 2019