Karnataka: Suspension of 18 BJP legislators revoked: Speaker Khader

In Karnataka, more than two months after 18 BJP MLAs were suspended from the Legislative Assembly for six months, Speaker U T Khader on Sunday said their suspension has been revoked. The decision was announced by Khader after a meeting with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, Leader of Opposition R Ashoka, and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H K Patil. In an unprecedented move, 18 BJP MLAs were suspended for six months from the assembly on March 21 for showing "indiscipline" and "disrespecting" the Speaker, and were forcefully evicted from the House by the marshals as they refused to leave.

#WATCH | Bengaluru, Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah and Speaker UT Khader chaired a meeting regarding the suspension of 18 BJP MLAs who were suspended during the last assembly session.

Deputy CM DK Shivakumar, Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka, Law Minister HK Patil were also… https://t.co/zRuD6RK7pI pic.twitter.com/rb6wdT3OrW

— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2025

Khader said, "Though I proposed the suspension, the House gave its approval through a resolution. So, the leader of the House and Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, Law Minister and Leader of the Opposition discussed with me. It has been decided to revoke the suspension and the conditions that were specified, and to allow them to function as legislators." Speaking to reporters, he said, "The suspension has been revoked happily. There are no conditions. Those legislators are our friends and not enemies, the incident had happened in a fit of the moment. To ensure that such incidents don't repeat, I too had to take strict action." He further said the legislators realised their mistake and they also had the understanding that they may not be able to attend legislative committee meetings and official tours. He said in his capacity as the Speaker, it is his duty to protect the respect of MLAs.
The incident leading to suspension had occurred on the last day of the assembly's budget session; following the massive protest by BJP MLAs against 4 per cent reservation to Muslims in public contracts and demanding a judicial probe into alleged "honey-trap" attempt against Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna. During the protest inside the assembly that day, some BJP legislators climbed onto the podium and surrounded the Speaker's chair; few MLAs hurled papers at the Speaker and marshals had to forcefully evict the BJP MLAs who had surrounded the Speaker's chair.
The suspended MLAs were BJP chief whip Doddanagouda Patil, former Deputy CM C N Ashwath Narayan, S R Vishwanath, B A Basavaraju, M R Patil, Channabasappa, B Suresh Gowda, Umanath Kotyan, Sharanu Salagar, Dr Shailendra Beldale, C K Ramamurthy, Yashpal Suvarna, B P Harish, Bharath Shetty, Dheeraj Muniraju, Chandru Lamani, Muniratna and Basavaraj Mattimud.

(State Correspondent)