18 BJP MLAs Suspended From House Amid 'Honey-Trap' Row

The Karnataka assembly on Friday witnessed high drama, with Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) creating a ruckus demanding a judicial probe by a sitting high court judge into the alleged "honey-trap" attempt involving a minister and other politicians, leading to the suspension of 18 BJP legislators for six months for "disrespecting" Speaker UT Khader.

- Arun Dev

BENGALURU:

The suspension resolution, moved by the state's parliamentary affairs minister HK Patil, was adopted by the assembly. Earlier, BJP and JD(S) members stormed into the well of the House, protesting with CDs in hand and shouting slogans, even as chief minister Siddaramaiah assured them of a high-level probe into alleged "honey-trap" allegations.

On Thursday, Congress leader and cooperation minister KN Rajanna informed the assembly that there had been attempts to honey-trap him and that at least 48 individuals, including legislators and central leaders and judges, had fallen victim to similar schemes.

"This chair cannot tolerate interrupting the proceedings of the House, ignoring the dignity of the chair and behaving in a way that damages the parliamentary traditions," the speaker said, while reading out the suspension order, which came on the last day of the state's budget session. The suspension resolution passed by the House bars the 18 MLAs from entering the assembly and participating in standing committee meetings for six months.

Those suspended are the BJP chief whip Doddanna Gouda Patil, CN Ashwath Narayan, SR Vishwanath, BA Basavaraju, MR Patil, Channabasappa, B Suresh Gowda, Umanath Kotyan, Sharanu Salagar, Dr Shailendra Beldale, CK Ramamurthy, Yashpal Suvarna, BP Harish, Bharath Shetty, Dheeraj Muniraju, Chandru Lamani, Muniratna and Basavaraj Mattimood.

Soon after the House convened in the morning, BJP MLA Sunil Kumar raised the honey-trap controversy involving politicians and demanded an answer from Siddaramaiah before he responded to the debate on the 2025-26 state budget.