Ayanur seeks action against 5 Congress MLCs

Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Ayanur Manjunath has written to Legislative Council Chairman K. Prathapchandra Shetty appealing to him to take action against five Congress MLCs, including party whip Narayanaswamy and Nazeer Ahmed, for allegedly affecting the sanctity of the House through their “unruly behaviour” of manhandling the Deputy Chairman who was in the chair.

Squarely blaming the Chairman as being responsible for such an episode, Mr. Manjunath demanded that he should at least initiate action to send a message that such a behaviour would not be tolerated. “Such a message should reach both the incumbent legislators as well as those aspiring to become legislators,” he said.

He said that Mr. Narayanaswamy, Chandrashekhar B. Patil, Srinivas Mane, Mr. Ahmed, and Prakash Rathod were allegedly involved in the attack on the Deputy Chairman.

Mr. Manjunath accused Mr. Shetty, against whom a no-confidence motion has been initiated by the BJP with the support of the JD(S), of giving importance to “protecting his own post” rather than making efforts to uphold the dignity of that post.

Wondering why Mr. Shetty did not follow the precedence set by his predecessor D.H. Shankaramurthy, who had allowed a no-confidence motion against him though it did not mention specific reasons for initiating such a move, Mr. Manjunath demanded that at least now the Chairman should resign. “You are at the centre of all the ugly episode that unfolded in the House,” he said.