Bengaluru: Commenting on the Supreme Court’s verdict on the disqualified MLAs case, former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said that he is unhappy with the outcome.
Speaking to ANI, he said, “I request that constitutional bodies have to take hard steps to save the democratic system. They have to ensure that those things do not occur again in the future. Some political leaders for their personal gains are misusing our constitutional institutions. I am not totally happy with this.”
It can be recalled that former Karnataka Assembly speaker Ramesh Kumar had disqualified the 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs for defying their respective party’s whips to be present for the floor test that would decide the fate of the then Congress-JD(S) coalition government. They were disqualified as per the provisions of the anti-defection law. They were also barred from contesting in any elections till 2023.
The Supreme Court, while it upheld the MLAs’ disqualification, allowed the MLAs to contest in the upcoming Assembly by-elections in the state.
On whether the JD(S) will support the BJP in the election, HDK said, “I have not promised anybody to protect their parties. My party is there. My top priority is to strengthen it. Why I have to support or safeguard any other party? What is a necessity? Both national parties always blame regional parties whatever be their fault. In this political system, they always want to blame the other side. Don’t play with regional parties.”
(With inputs from ANI)
