Mahesh Kumathalli

Some Lesser Known Facts About Mahesh Kumathalli

• Mahesh Kumathalli is an Indian politician who was elected as MLA from Athani on BJP’s ticket in the 2019 Karnataka Legislative Assembly by-elections. Earlier, he was a member of the INC.

• His sources of income include agricultural income from his land in Savadi and Telsang villages in Karnataka.

• In 2005, Mahesh’s younger brother, Prakash Kumathalli, and his wife, Jyothi Kumathalli, adopted their native village Telasang in Athani taluk for a year to develop it.

• Kumathalli was one among the 17 MLAs who shifted their allegiance to the BJP, leading to the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led JDS-Congress government in 2019.

  

• In July 2019, K R Ramesh Kumar, the Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly, disqualified Independent MLA R Shankar, and two MLAs from the Congress-JD(S) alliance, Ramesh Jharkiholi and Mahesh Kumathalli on the anti-defection law. The Speaker stated that the MLAs had violated the provisions outlined in Para 2(1) (a) of the tenth Schedule of the Constitution and under 191(a) of the Constitution of India. Consequently, they lost their membership in the 15th State Legislative Assembly and were barred from participating in the assembly until its term ended on 23 May 2023. ^[7]WION Additionally, they were prohibited from participating in any by-elections. In response to their expulsion from the Assembly, Kumathalli and Ramesh Kumar appealed to the Supreme Court. They argued that the Speaker’s decision was hasty and influenced by the Congress party. In November 2019, the Supreme Court upheld the disqualification of the 17 rebel Karnataka MLAs but overturned the Speaker’s ruling that prevented them from contesting elections until 2023. ^[8]India Today

• While Kumathalli and other MLAs who were speculating to join BJP in 2019 were staying in Mumbai at the behest of the BJP, Pramod Hiremani (Youth Congress president in Athani) filed a habeas corpus petition before the Karnataka HC alleging that Kumathalli was missing and possibly in illegal detention. He accused MLA for Gokak Ramesh Jarkiholi of illegally confining Kumathalli. Thereafter, the HC issued notices to the State government and Jarkiholi. Hiremani said that at first, he filed a police complaint in Athani, but he was told that Kumathalli must be visiting Bengaluru, where the assembly session was in progress. However, when Hiremani looked for the MLA in Bengaluru, he failed to locate him and went on to file the petition. Rumours were that Mahesh had said Hiremani that Ramesh was forcing him to resign from his MLA post. ^[9]The Hindu

• When Kumathalli joined BJP and helped the party to bring down the HD Kumaraswamy-led JDS-Congress government in 2019, people from his native village, Telasang, and other villages in Athani taluk displayed their disappointment with the MLA by installing large boards on their outskirts to prohibit his entry. He was banned from campaigning in the area as many accused him of “selling himself” to the BJP for money “like a sheep, hen or buffalo.” The villagers were also irked over the fact that Kumatalli chose to stay in Mumbai while their villages were hit by floods. ^[10]Deccan Chronicle

• In 2023, politics in Athani came full circle when Laxman Savadi and Mahesh Kumathalli who contested for the BJP and Congress respectively in 2018, faced each other again from the parties they opposed in the previous election. In 2018, Kumathalli contested and won the Athani assembly seat as an INC candidate, defeating the BJP candidate Laxman Savadi by 2331 votes. In 2023, Kumathalli contested the Athani assembly on BJP’s ticket, but he lost to Laxman Savadi, who was contesting the elections on INC’s ticket, by 76,122 votes.