Former Minister and BJP MLC A.H. Vishwanath, who has been barred by the Supreme Court from being made a Minister unless he becomes an elected member, on Monday met Home Minister Amit Shah’s confidant and BJP national general secretary Bhupendra Yadav in Delhi to discuss how he could get a ministerial berth.
Soon after the meeting, Mr. Vishwanath told reporters that he had offered to quit the current nominated MLC post so that he could become the party’s candidate to contest for the MLC seat to be elected from the Legislative Assembly. The seat has fallen vacant after the death of S.L. Dharme Gowda of the JD(S).
Mr. Vishwanath, who was elected as a legislator from Hunsur on JD(S) ticket, switched to the BJP and resigned from his legislator’s seat. He was among 17 Congress and JD(S) legislators who resigned, resulting in the collapse of the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in July 2019. The Supreme Court, which heard the anti-defection case filed in this regard, said that Mr. Vishwanath could only hold the post after getting elected while the BJP nominated him as MLC.
Mr. Vishwanath explained that the current MLC seat has a tenure of five and a half years, while the seat that has fallen vacant because of Dharme Gowda’s death has three and a half years’ tenure left. The MLC sought Mr. Yadav’s help in becoming a Cabinet Minister.
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