Mysuru: Political analyst Ravindra Reshme opined that it was not right on the part of Congress and JD(S) parties to snatch away the fundamental rights of their Legislators under the anti-defection law.

He was speaking after inaugurating an interaction on the topic ‘A review of disqualification of Legislators and Constitutional Violations in Karnataka,’ organised by Karnataka Rajya Shaikshanika Diksoochi Mathu Sudharana Samithi at Sarada Vilas Law College, Krishnamurthypuram here on Saturday.

Referring to the disqualification of Congress and JD(S) Legislators who quit their Assembly seats that led to the downfall of the coalition Government a few months ago, Reshme said that Legislators who believe in ideology, social values  and commitment, do not tolerate the dictatorial attitude of their parties and this was the reason why 17 MLAs from the Congress and JD(S) rebelled against their parties and quit the Assembly.

Referring to former Minister D.K. Shivakumar (DKS), who was released from prison a few days ago after being arrested by the ED in connection with a money laundering case, he  wondered why Shivakumar was questioning the investigating agencies for questioning about his benami assets and transactions.

Taking former CM Siddharamaiah to task for not speaking about DKS, Reshme asked the Congress leaders to introspect on corruption, with many leaders of the party facing big charges of corruption and power abuse.

Disqualified JD(S) MLA from Hunsur  A.H. Vishwanath maintained that the leaders of both the Congress and JD(S)  neglected their Legislators and this was the reason for their resignation. 

He claimed that 17 Legislators quit their seats to come out of the confusions and the contradictions within the coalition Government.

Vishwanath expressed hope that the voters would  understand the reasons for his quitting the Assembly.

BJP leader H.V. Rajeev, Dr. K.L. Divya, Dr. Guru Basavaraj, Dr. Anand Gowda, Dr. Manu Gorawale, Chennakrishnaiah, Praveen Kumar, Dr. Hariprasad, Vasanth Kumar, M.S. Sharath,P. Jagadish and others took part in the interaction.