The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Karnataka nominated five people to the State Legislative Council on Wednesday including those who shifted loyalties enabling it to come to power.
Adagur H Vishwanath, CP Yogeshwar, Shantharama Budna Siddi, a tribal leader from Siddi community, Bharathi Shetty, and Talwar Sabanna are the nominated members.
Vishwanath, a former minister and former JDS party president, quit the party to join BJP last year during a rebellion in both Congress and JDS which led to the collapse of the JDS-Congress coalition government.
Former congress minister CP Yogeshwar joined BJP long ago and was allegedly instrumental in luring the MLAs to help BJP form the government.
The government issued gazette notification after Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa met Governor Vajubai R Vala on Wednesday.
Opposition to protest
As the Chief Minister met Governor Vajubai R Vala on Wednesday to discuss questions raised by the governor for signing pending ordinances, Opposition Congress stepped up its opposition for land reforms act and amendments to APMC Act.
The Chief minister, it is said, spent considerable time with the Governor explaining the pending ordinances.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah held a meeting with farmers’ leaders and decided to launch a state-wide agitation along with various farmers’ organisations against the sweeping changes brought to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act through an ordinance.
Siddaramaiah told reporters after the meeting that the farmers’ leaders had vehemently opposed the amendments that included easing restrictions on buying farm land and the extent of land that one could hold.
Later in the day, Siddaramaiah tweeted, “There is a need to raise our voice against many more policy decisions like APMC act, Electricity amendment bill, etc. These are also against the interests of the common man. @BJP4India is trying to take the advantage of pandemic & trying to impose it on innocent people.”