With a panel recommending suspension of 15 MLAs, names of opposition leader Siddaramaiah, and senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar were removed from the report minutes before being tabled, say sources

A house committee report tabled in the assemblyu00a0 skipped the names of leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, and senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar while recommending the suspension of opposition MLAs for their unruly behaviour in the house yesterday.


What's happening here? Yeddyurappa in an animated conversation
with senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar. File pic

Sources said the names of Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were dropped from the list at last moment at the behest of Yeddyurappa, as the chief minister didn't want to trouble them.

A quick recap
Based on a complaint by the BJP MLAs, the speaker had constituted a house under the chairmanship of M P Appachu Ranjan to probe into the unruly behaviour of the opposition members on November 12,u00a0 2010, during the CM's vote of confidence.

Yeddyurappa had to prove majority for his government after 17 MLAs including five independents withdrew their support. On the day of the trust vote, the disqualified members gate- crashed and the opposition members created a ruckus.

"The report had to be altered at the eleventh hour. The final printed copies were ready only 30 minutes before it was tabled," said a source. Interestingly, the recommendation portion of the report is typed in different fonts than those of the rest.
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Ranjan was candid. "There is no question of sparing Siddaramaiah or Shivakumar when it comes to discipline in the house. There was no complaint against them and we don't have suo motu powers to include them," he said.

However, the report has mentioned that the two had provoked the opposition members into behaving rudely.
"It would have been no difference to me if they had included my name, because the report is politically motivated," said Siddaramaiah. "The ruling party is so intolerant and it is trying to suppress the democratic rights of the opposition members."

The report recommended a one-year suspension for eight MLAs, and a six-month suspension of seven MLAs.
Speaker K G Bopiah had to take a call, and BJP insiders said that the ruling party would preserve it as a weapon and use whenever it is needed.

Suspended MLAs
One year suspension: Rahim Khan, B Z Zamir Ahmad Khan, H C Balakrishna, Kakasahib Panduranga Patil, C S Puttaraju, N A Haris, U T Khadar, and M T Krishnappa.

Six-month suspension: B K Sangamesh, Bandeppa Kashempura, Suresh Gowda, H P Manjunath, K Raju, K P Bachhe Gowda, and M P Ashok.

>>Political friendship between Chief Minister Yeddyurappa and the opposition leaders is not unknown.
>>With the opposition members demanding a CBI probe into illegal mining, he had sent a slip to T B Jayachandra, deputy leader of the opposition, saying, " Well done. Please continue."
>>The opposition was breathing fire on Reddy brothers; political foes of the CM in the party.
>>A source said that Yeddyurappa was happy with Siddaramaiah, who attacked the Reddys in the house and later led a walkathon from Bangalore to Bellary demanding a CBI probe into illegal mining.