Congress says BJP-led govt in K'taka 'illegal'

New Delhi: Hailing the Supreme Court verdict on 17 disqualified Karnataka MLAs, Congress on Wednesday dubbed the BJP-led government in Karnataka as 'illegal'.

While talking to reporters, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the verdict has burst the bubble of BJP's 'Operation Kamal'. Demanding the dismissal of the Yediyurappa-led BJP government in Karnataka, the Congress said that the government should now be dismissed for "brazenly and illegally" bringing down the Congress-Janata Dal (S) alliance government in the southern state.

The grand old party's Karnataka faction also termed the government as illegal and sought its dismissal.

Upholding the top court's judgement, senior Congress leader and noted lawyer Abhishek Singhvi said, "This is the true chal, charitra and chehra of those who preach in this manner. They now stand exposed completely."

"We call for immediate resignation of the chief minister. We ask the Prime Minister and the other important people in this Cabinet to do soul searching about what their party is doing and please don't bear this misimpression that these things are of state level without full 100 per cent involvement of the central leadership," Singhvi said.

Surjewala also demanded investigation of Yeddyurappa tapes, in which the temptation was given to the legislators to change their political allegiance.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the disqualification of 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs by the then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar but allowed them to contest the December 5 bypolls in the state.

It struck down the portion of the order of then Speaker by which the legislators were disqualified till the end of the 15th Karnataka assembly in 2023. Among the disqualified MLAs, 14 were from Congress and three were from JD(S). Explaining about the SC verdict, legal expert Abhishek Ranjan said that the holding the decision of the Speaker is legally correct, but giving 'defaulters' a chance to take part in bypolls is not a good trend.

"As per the guidelines of the Anti Defection Law, the court should had not allowed disqualified turncoats to contest bypolls. Now, questions would be raised over the legal validity of defection law," Ranjan said.

Meanwhile, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao has asked BJP not to give tickets to the disqualified legislators to contest polls if it has "any morality left."

"The judgment is a lesson to MLAs, who wanted to resign and join other party according to human fancy or by the influence of other parties- it is not correct is what court has said," Congress leader Siddaramaiah said.