Bangalore, Dec 14: With an eye on the December 22 bypoll to the lone Legislative Council seat, ruling BJP in Karnataka today revoked suspension of its four rebel Bellary legislators including G Somasekhara Reddy, brother of jailed former minister G Janardhana Reddy.
The party revoked suspension of Somasekhara Reddy, H T Suresh Babu, B Nagendra (all MLAs) and MLC Mruthyunjaya Jinaga, state unit BJP President K S Eswarappa told reporters.
The party had suspended the four legislators on November 25 on charges of indulging in anti-party activities after they openly supported rebel leader B Sreeramulu in the Bellary Rural Constituency bypoll held last month.
Sreeramulu successfully contested the by-election and threatened to defeat Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda in the Council bypoll, claiming that he had the support of 22 MLAs, which he retracted later.
Eswarappa said all the four suspended legislators have replied to the show cause notice issued by the party and declared that they continue to be BJP members. They have also sought the revocation of their suspension, he said.
In the light of this development, the central leadership will take a decision on revoking the suspension of MPs—J Shanta, sister of Sreeramulu and Sanna Fakirappa, who represent Bellary and Raichur Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
The BJP High Command had suspended both the MPs for supporting Sreeramulu in the bypoll.
Eswarappa admitted that the coming council bypoll was also the reason for the decision to withdraw the suspension of its three MLAs.
The BJP has 121 members support including the Speaker in the 224-member House, with Congress and JDS enjoying a strength of 71 and 26 respectively.
Congress has fielded Anand Gaddadevaramath in the bypoll hoping to cash in on the rebellion within the ruling party.
