Election Commission order on rebel MLAs invalid: Rao

BENGALURU: The Congress’ position has been that the Speaker’s disqualification order of the rebel MLAs is a legally valid one, making the intervention of the Election Commission, in this matter, invalid, said KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao at a press meet on Monday. 

Congress leaders discussed the legality of the issue, and said that the EC is not an authority to decide or override the Speaker’s order. Rao, while speaking about the selection of candidates for the bypolls, said preparations have been made. Rao also pointed out that they have organised a protest in Belagavi over the failure of the government to sanctions money to deal with flood relief work, on Tuesday.  

Congress leaders, who are fighting with their backs to the wall to retain 12 of the 15 constituencies going to polls, held a meeting under the leadership of Siddararamaiah, where senior leaders such as Veerappa Moily, Dr G Parameshwara, Ramlinga Reddy and others were present. 

JDS, which lost three seats, is seeking to recover more, and held a series of meetings under the leadership its national president H D Deve Gowda and party president H D Kumaraswamy, to finalise candidates. Both parties will announce their lists in a few days.

Meanwhile, all hopes of the Congress and JDS working things out can be dropped, as the former partners engaged in another round of mud-slinging. Kumaraswamy hit back at CLP leader Siddaramaiah, asking the latter who was responsible for the Congress’ defeat in Kolar, where many Congress-turned-rebels had helped in the defeat of K H Muniyappa.