Cong to boycott Karnataka budget session

Bangalore: The Opposition Congress in Karnataka on Friday decided to boycott the ongoing extended budget session of legislature to press for its demand for the resignation of Assembly Speaker K G Bopaiah in the light of Supreme Court's "strictures" while quashing his order disqualifying 16 MLAs.

Ending two days of hectic consultations among its legislators of both Assembly and Council, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) unanimously decided to stay away from the session, setting the stage for another confrontation with ruling BJP.

Congress was also demanding resignation of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa over the recent apex court ruling.

Demanding the resignations of Yeddyurappa and Bopaiah, Congress members had on Thursday had staged a walkout in the Assembly shortly before the Chief Minister won a trust vote.

Announcing the CLP decision, Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Siddaramaiah told reporters, "Bopaiah has degraded the Speaker's position by not giving an opportunity to make preliminary submission on the adjournment motion the Congress moved yesterday on the issue. The way Yeddyurappa and Bopaiah are conducting themselves is a dangerous trend to whole democratic set up," he claimed.

Siddaramaiah sought to disagree with the contention of the Speaker and the government that the Supreme Court had not passed any strictures, but only made certain observations on the disqualification order passed by Bopaiah.

"Has the Supreme Court defined what is observation or stricture? When the court has used strong words like 'extraneous consideration', 'violated principle of natural justice', 'attitude and partisan' - it is nothing but stricture. He (Bopaiah) has no moral right to sit in Speaker's chair," Siddaramaiah said.

He denied that opinion remained divided among party legislators over boycotting of the session and said "it is an unanimous decision".

He expressed anger over the attitude of the government in not inviting the opposition for talks to end the deadlock.

The JDS had already announced boycott of the session and stayed away from both houses since Thursday.

A government source said the 10-day session might be curtailed and could end by June 10 if the stand-off with the Opposition parties continued.