The Karnataka Congress on Monday submitted new documents to support its case against the 17 disqualified MLAs in the Supreme Court. The counsel representing the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee – Kapil Sibal, submitted a video, an audio tape and several newspaper clippings about the tape allegedly of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa that had gone viral on Friday.
A video surfaced on Friday evening allegedly showing Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa admitting to carrying out Operation Kamala in the state on the instructions of BJP's national leaders. While the audio was captured, one could not confirm if it was Yediyurappa who was addressing the meeting.
The Supreme Court was slated to issue orders on Monday regarding the petition filed by the rebel leaders to quash their disqualification orders. Justice NV Ramana, who is currently hearing the case, informed Kapil Sibal that he would take up the matter with Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and ask him to set up a three-judge bench to decide on the matter. The hearing has been scheduled for Tuesday.
The Congress has accused Yediyurappa of confessing to poaching 17 rebel legislators from Congress and JD(S), which led to the collapse of the coalition. The Congress has requested the Supreme Court to uphold former Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar’s order, which had disqualified the rebel MLAs and made them ineligible to contest bye-elections for the rest of the present Karnataka Assembly’s term. Kapil Sibal told the court that if the Speaker’s order is not upheld, then the 10th Schedule of the Constitution (anti-defection law) would be compromised.
Chief Minister Yediyurappa has, however, issued a clarification on Saturday regarding the viral video. “Yes, I had spoken to the party workers in Hubballi and I told them to say good things about the disqualified MLAs,” Yediyurappa had said.
Karnataka Congress leaders had also met Governor Vajubhai Vala and had asked him to dismiss the Yediyurappa government. Congress leaders say that they will submit a memorandum to the President Ramnath Kovind seeking the dismissal of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who had allegedly overseen Operation Kamala.