The BJP’s Central Disciplinary Committee Tuesday expelled two occasion legislators, A Shivaram Hebbar and S T Somashekar, for six years for “repeated violations of the occasion self-discipline”. The motion in opposition to the BJP MLAs was primarily based on their response to a showcase discover issued by the occasion Committee on March 25 this 12 months.
Earlier than this, the Bharatiya Janata Get together expelled firebrand occasion MLA Basangouda Patil Yatnal from its ranks for six years in March this 12 months.
Although each have been ministers below the erstwhile BJP rule, Hebbar and Somashekar have been on the fringes of the occasion after the Congress got here to energy. They have been beforehand within the Congress, and had joined the BJP in the course of the 2019 ‘Operation Lotus’ which noticed the defection of 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs.
The 2 MLAs, particularly Somashekar, brought on a humiliation for the state BJP unit by defying occasion diktats. Within the Karnataka Meeting, the Yeshwantpur MLA backed a number of Payments tabled by the Congress authorities, which the BJP had opposed. He had additionally refused to stroll out with the BJP legislators throughout their protests contained in the Home.
The difficulty for the 2 began in February 2024 when Somashekar cross-voted for Congress candidates in the course of the Rajya Sabha polls, and Hebbar abstained. Their rebel was an agenda for the state core committee throughout its assembly held in December 2024, as that they had “recognized themselves with the Congress”.
Somashekar and Hebbar, who’re three-time MLAs, had additionally backed Congress candidates in the course of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Although this had not ensured victory for Congress candidates in constituencies, which they have been a part of, it had attracted the wrath of the BJP management.
Somashekar was as soon as thought-about near Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He was related to Deputy CM D Okay Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga chief like himself, since Congress got here to energy in 2023.
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Somashekar had served because the chairman of the Bangalore Improvement Authority in the course of the year-long Kumaraswamy regime between 2018 and 2019. Submit his change to the BJP, he held the cooperation portfolio within the B S Yediyurappa and Basavaraj Bommai cupboards.
Hebbar hails from Yellapur within the Uttara Kannada district of the state. He, together with Somashekar, is alleged to have felt sidelined after the BJP misplaced the current Meeting elections, and Yediyurappa’s affect on the state unit of the occasion waned.
With the 2 expulsions, the energy of the BJP within the Karnataka Meeting declined to 62. Whereas three MLAs have been suspended this 12 months, former CM Basavaraj Bommai had give up as MLA after he gained the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.