‘Take on record audio clip’

MLAs to resign and becoming chief minister with their help as party leaders are not supporting them. All these legislators also look foolish by trusting us and sacrificing their positions. What was the need for them to resign and help us come to power when we should have been in the Opposition? They stayed away from their constituencies and family members by camping in Mumbai for two-and-a-half to three months on the direction of Amit Shah,” Mr Yediyurappa reportedly says on the tape.

The political future of the disqualified MLAs depends on the court’s decision. Only if their disqualification is set aside and their resignations from the state Assembly are accepted, can they contest the December 5 Assembly bypolls. If the case gets prolonged and the verdict is delayed, it would not just affect their chances, but may also skew the numbers in the Assembly in favour of the Congress and JD(S).

The Yediyurappa government may find itself in a precarious situation if the BJP fails to win at least eight of the 15 seats.

The top court had on October 25 reserved verdict on a batch of petitions challenging the disqualification of 17 Karnataka MLAs before the trust vote moved by the previous H.D. Kumaraswamy government.

Meanwhile, the war of words between the BJP and the Congress over the disqualified MLAs’ issue continued on Monday with chief minister Yediyurappa asserting that there was no truth in the audio clip submitted to the Supreme Court.

“It was Mr Siddaramaiah (Opposition leader in the Assembly) who hatched a plan to destabilise the previous H.D. Kumaraswamy government by making 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs resign. He and former Speaker Ramesh Kumar then ensured the disqualification of these MLAs to save themselves,” Mr Yediyurappa alleged.

“We have no connection with the resignation of the disqualified MLAs. What they want to do, after this, is left to them,” Mr Yediyurappa told reporters in Bengaluru while trying to distance himself from the charge that the BJP was behind the resignations.

— ASIAN AGE Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla with Speaker of the House of People’s Representatives, Indonesia, Puan Maharani Nakshatra Kusyala, on the sidelines of the 6th Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit in Tokyo on Monday.