BENGALURU: Fully aware that the fate of the Congress-JDS coalition lies in his hands, Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, who returned to office on Tuesday, may have given the two parties a ray of hope in extending the life of the coalition.
Stating categorically that he will go by the book, Ramesh Kumar deemed eight of the 13 resignations submitted to his office by coalition MLAs as invalid.
He has given legislators two days time to seek an appointment, appear before him in person and submit their resignations in the “prescribed format” — only then would he consider.
In one smooth move, citing format, the Speaker bought some more time — both for himself and the coalition — time that is crucial for the Congress and JDS to, at least, attempt to get its house in order. The BJP though angered over ‘’the Speaker sabotaging’’ their gameplan has not decided to agitate against the Speaker himself.
“Resignations of Anand Singh, Narayana Gowda, Pratap Gouda Patil, Gopalaiah and Ramalinga Reddy are in the prescribed format. The others aren’t. They have two days to submit their resignations afresh in a proper format,” Ramesh Kumar told reporters at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday.
The coalition’s fate precariously hangs on whether the Speaker will accept all resignations. If he does, the numbers will fall to 104, way less than the halfway mark of 106 in a reduced House strength of 211.
On the day Karnataka assembly convenes for the monsoon session, Ramesh Kumar has asked Anand Singh, Pratap Gouda Patil and Narayan Gowda to appear before him in person.
With this decision the Speaker has compelled rebel MLAs, currently holed up in a private hotel in Maharashtra, to return to Bengaluru where the Congress may be able to dissuade them from deserting the coalition.
Senior Congress leader Ramalinga Reddy and JDS’ Gopalaiah have been summoned on July 15.
The others will now have to submit their resignations in their own handwriting stating that they are resigning on their own volition and not under duress and that they are not resigning to join another party. “The Speaker will carefully scrutinise each letter. If he finds that the MLA is resigning under pressure, he may reject it,” the sources said.
This clause of “voluntary resignation” is what the Congress hopes to latch on to threaten rebel MLAs with anti-defection law.
“Resigning under pressure will attract action under anti-defection law and we will petition the Speaker to disqualify these MLAs and stop them from contesting polls for the next 6 years,” Congress leader Siddaramaiah told reporters while briefing about the legislature party meeting’s decision.
If the Speaker, in his discretion, decides that the resignations were not voluntary, rebelling Congress MLAs face the threat of disqualification under the 10th Schedule and will not be eligible to hold any remunerative political post for the duration of the period commencing from the date of disqualification till an election is held.
Tuesday’s developments may have put a spanner in BJP’s works. Party sources say that the leaders are upset with the Speaker’s decision, but had anticipated this and are now working out new strategies to ensure the collapse of the coalition.
The first of BJP’s strategy will come in the form of a protest on Wednesday against the Speaker’s decision while the next will come in the form of a delegation that will meet Ramesh Kumar to insist that he accept the resignations.
A Congress petition to the Speaker, a copy of which is available with TNIE, says, that “it is reliably learnt that BJP has taken some of the members of the Congress and JDS, who have resigned, to Mumbai and they have been staying at Sofitel Hotel where high security has been given.”
According to the note, “as BJP is in power in Maharashtra, which only goes to show that the resignation is neither genuine nor voluntary but done at the instance of the BJP by threatening or coercing or due to money and political power. Therefore, the Speaker/Chairman is bound to conduct an enquiry as the resignation is not voluntary.”
The rebel MLAs are however latching on to the technicality that they have only resigned as legislators and not from their respective parties. This, Congress views as a ray of hope to lure them back.