Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Wednesday confirmed that the 17 disqualified rebel MLAs from Congress-JD(S), who were on Wednesday allowed by the Supreme Court to contest the bypolls for 15 seats next month will join BJP.
"All the Congress-JD(S) MLAs who had rebelled want to join the BJP by tomorrow 10 am. We welcome the Supreme Court decision and our (state) president is going to receive them and the membership will be given to them tomorrow," Yediyurappa said at a press conference after the party's core committee meeting here.
Earlier today, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising N V Ramana, Sanjiv Khanna and Krishna Murari in its verdict upheld the disqualification of the 17 MLAs which was done ahead of the July 23 trust vote by the orders of the then Speaker Ramesh Kumar but allowed all of them to contest by-polls.
BJP general secretary and MLA Arvind Limbavali said that the party is set to gain from the induction of the turncoat MLAs and their supporters. He also added that the party's candidate list for the by-polls will be finalised by Thursday evening.
"The grip of BJP is going to get strong with the induction of these MLAs. It will help in running a stable government, the BJP is set to gain from the induction of these MLAs who were elected from their respective constituencies," Limbavali told ANI.
"They will join along with their supporters. The names of the candidates were discussed but it is yet to be finalised, it will be done by tomorrow evening," he added.
Limbavali added that the party had appointed him as the in-charge for the by-polls scheduled to be held in December.
"The core committee has appointed several leaders for each constituency and they have finalised my name for the over-all in-charge," Limbavali said.
Assembly by-poll dates for Karnataka were announced on Sunday by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sanjeev Kumar.
A total of 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka are going to by-polls on December 5.
The counting of the votes has been scheduled for December 9.
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