Karnataka crisis: After much dilly-dally, Speaker sets final deadline for trust vote
Bengaluru: With the Congress-JD(S) members insisting that voting on the confidence motion moved by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaras-wamy last Thursday, sho-uld be taken up only after the debate concludes, Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar partially acceded to the proposal made by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah and announced that voting will take place on the confidence motion at 6 pm on Tuesday.
The Speaker however did not agree to Mr Siddaramaiah’s suggestion that the discussion on the trust vote be allowed to continue till 8 pm after which the CM should be given a chance to speak. Mr Ramesh Kumar said that the debate on the confidence motion should be completed by 4 pm followed by the Chief Minister’s reply to the debate at 5 pm even as the opposition BJP opposed the deadlines.
Earlier, the assembly witnessed stormy scenes over voting on the confidence motion with Mr Ramesh Kumar insisting that he would not adjourn the House till voting happens. The ruling Congress and JD(S) amid complete pandemonium in the House, demanded voting be put off till they had all spoken and the Speaker decides on the resignations of the 15 rebels MLAs, most of whom are now camping in Mumbai.
However, BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa demanded a trust vote even by midnight, even as the two independent MLAs approached the top court with a fresh plea, seeking holding of the floor test “forthwith” in the state Assem-bly on the trust motion moved by the Chief Minister.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Monday declined to hear during the day the plea by R Shankar and H Nagesh and posted it for Tuesday.
The Assembly was further disrupted when copies of a letter claiming that Mr Kumaraswamy resigned as the Chief Minister were circulated in the House by Mr Kum-araswamy. Mr Kumaraswamy decried the use of the “fake” letter, addres-sed to the Governor, which had the chief minister’s signature stating that he wishes to resign for personal reasons.
Members of the JD(S)-Congress kept the discussion going with no signs that the house would be able to hold a trust vote by Monday night. The coalition has already defied the two deadlines set by Governor Vajubhai Vala, who had said in his two missives to the CM that he was “prima facie satisfied” that the CM had lost the confidence of the House. On Friday, the Speaker had indicated that voting on the confidence motion would conclude on Monday but with the coalition MLAs in no mood to allow voting, all eyes are on the Speaker and the decision he takes.
The opposition BJP led by its state chief suspects that voting is being delayed by the Congress-JD(S) government only to buy time to make a last ditch effort to win back the rebel legislators, who are being threatened with disqualification if they do not return to the house by Tuesday.
The rebels have announced repeatedly that they have no intention of coming back to Bengaluru and supporting the coalition government during the trust vote.
The coalition no doubt is on shaky ground after the resignations of the 15 and the withdrawal of support by the two Independents and can now boast of only 101 MLAs in the Assembly (excluding the Speaker and the nominated member) while the Bharatiya Janata Party has the support of 107 MLAs including the Independents.
Kagawad Congress MLA Shrimant Patil is unlikely to participate in the trust vote proceedings as he has been admitted to a hospital in Mumbai after suffering from chest pain. Realising that he does not have the numbers on his side, Chief Minister Kumaraswmay met the Speaker and requested him to postpone voting on the confidence motion by 2 or 3 days but Mr Ramesh Kumar has not acceded to his request.
Meanwhile the Speaker has issued notices to all the rebel MLAs asking them to appear before him on Tuesday.
In a related development, he also allowed the notice on the point of order raised by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah on the issuance of whip to rebel Congress MLAs and said the Congress Legislature Party leader has the right to issue the whip to his party legislators under the tenth schedule of the Constitution.
