In a categorical statement, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday said that all its rebel members of legislative assembly in Karnataka, who were disqualified by the assembly speaker, would not be taken back by the party.
"Some of the disqualified MLAs are making statements that they are willing to come back to the BJP. They are no more in the party. They have been disqualified. By their actions they have given up their membership," senior BJP leader M Venkaiah Naidu said.
Eleven BJP MLAs and five Independents (who were part of the B S Yeddyurappa government) had rebelled and informed Karnataka Governor H R Bhardwaj that they were withdrawing their support. Speaker K G Boppaiah had disqualified them under the anti-defection law.
Naidu, who was sent by the party high command to handle the crisis in Karnataka, said these disqualified legislators had gone to Chennai, Kochi, Mumbai and then Goa in the company of Janata Dal - Secular leaders.
"Even now they are staying in a camp organised by the JD-S," Naidu said. He maintained that the argument of some people that these MLAs were "only against an individual (Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa) and not the party" was not convincing.
"They were raising both their hands with JD-S leader H D Kumaraswamy. And they had gone to the governor as if he is the head of the party. This happens in the Congress where the governor does everything," Naidu said, taking a jibe at Bhardwaj, whom the BJP has accused of being partisan.
Ruling out any chances of taking these rebels back, the senior leader said, "They have wilfully given up their membership. The party will not take them back."
Asked about Kumaraswamy's allegations that he had a CD which shows BJP trying to horse-trade MLAs from the JD-S and Congress, Naidu retorted, "Has he released his own CD also where he was talking to BJP MLAs?"
Denying that the BJP was indulging in horse-trading to keep its government safe, Naidu also asked the media not to 'come to any hasty conclusions' on the issue, saying the CD was made with a 'particular motive'.
